Sino-Japanese War(July 7 - September 9) - the war between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, which began in the period before World War II and continued during it.

Although both states had been engaged in periodic hostilities since 1931, full-scale war broke out in 1937 and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1937. The war was a consequence of Japan's imperialist course of political and military dominance in China for several decades in order to seize huge reserves of raw materials and other resources. At the same time, growing Chinese nationalism and increasingly widespread ideas of self-determination made a military response inevitable. Until 1937, the sides clashed in sporadic fighting, so-called "incidents", as both sides, for many reasons, refrained from starting an all-out war. In 1931, the invasion of Manchuria (also known as the Mukden Incident) occurred. The last such incident was the Lugouqiao incident, the Japanese shelling of the Marco Polo Bridge on July 7, 1937, which marked the official start of a full-scale war between the two countries.

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The Qing dynasty was on the verge of collapse due to internal revolutionary uprisings and the expansion of foreign imperialism, while Japan became a great power thanks to effective measures in the course of modernization. The Republic of China was proclaimed in 1912 as a result of the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing dynasty. However, the nascent republic was even weaker than before - this dates back to the period of militaristic wars. The prospects for uniting the nation and repelling the imperialist threat looked very remote. Some military leaders even teamed up with various foreign forces in attempts at mutual destruction. For example, the ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin, adhered to military and economic cooperation with the Japanese. Thus, Japan posed the main foreign threat to China during the early Republic.

The Mukden Incident was followed by ongoing conflicts. In 1932, Chinese and Japanese soldiers fought a short war called the January 28 Incident. This war led to the demilitarization of Shanghai, in which the Chinese were prohibited from stationing their armed forces. In Manchukuo there was a long campaign to combat the anti-Japanese volunteer armies, which arose out of popular disappointment in the policy of non-resistance to the Japanese. In 1933, the Japanese attacked the Great Wall area, leading to an armistice that gave the Japanese control of Rehe Province and created a demilitarized zone between the Great Wall and the Beijing–Tianjin area. The Japanese goal was to create another buffer zone, this time between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government, whose capital was Nanjing.

On top of this, Japan continued to exploit internal conflicts between Chinese political factions to reduce their power. This confronted the Nanjing government with a fact - for several years after the Northern Expedition, the political power of the Nationalist government extended only to the areas around the Yangtze River Delta, while other regions of China were essentially held in the hands of regional authorities. Thus, Japan often paid off or created special ties with these regional powers to undermine the central Nationalist government's efforts to unify China. To accomplish this, Japan sought out various Chinese traitors to interact with and assist these people heading some Japanese-friendly "autonomous" governments. This policy was called the "specialization" of North China and was also known as the "North China Autonomy Movement." Specialization affected the northern provinces of Chahar, Suiyuan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong.

Vichy France: The main supply routes for American military aid ran through the Chinese province of Yunnan and Tonkin, the northern region of French Indochina, so Japan wanted to block the Sino-Indochinese border. After France's defeat in the European War and the establishment of the Vichy puppet regime, Japan invaded Indochina. In March 1945, the Japanese finally ousted the French from Indochina, proclaiming their own colonies there.

Free France: In December 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the leader of the Free French movement, Charles de Gaulle, declared war on Japan. The French acted on the basis of all-Allied interests, as well as in order to keep the Asian colonies of France under their control.

In general, all allies of Nationalist China had their own goals and objectives, often very different from the Chinese. This must be taken into account when considering the reasons for certain actions of different states.

Strengths of the parties

Empire of Japan

Republic of China

By the beginning of the conflict, China had 1,900 thousand soldiers and officers, 500 aircraft (according to other sources, in the summer of 1937, the Chinese Air Force had about 600 combat aircraft, of which 305 were fighters, but no more than half were combat-ready), 70 tanks, 1,000 artillery pieces . At the same time, only 300 thousand were directly subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the NRA, Chiang Kai-shek, and in total there were approximately 1 million people under the control of the Nanjing government, while the rest of the troops represented the forces of local militarists. Additionally, the fight against the Japanese was nominally supported by the Communists, who had a guerrilla army of approximately 150,000 men in northwestern China. The Kuomintang formed the 8th March Army from 45 thousand of these partisans under the command of Zhu De. Chinese aviation consisted of outdated aircraft with inexperienced Chinese or hired foreign crews. There were no trained reserves. Chinese industry was not prepared to fight a major war.

In general, the Chinese armed forces were superior in numbers to the Japanese, but were significantly inferior in technical equipment, training, morale, and most importantly, in their organization.

The Chinese fleet consisted of 10 cruisers, 15 patrol and torpedo boats.

Plans of the parties

Empire of Japan

The Japanese Empire aimed to retain Chinese territory by creating various structures in the rear that made it possible to control the occupied lands as effectively as possible. The army had to act with the support of the fleet. Naval landings were actively used to quickly capture populated areas without the need for a frontal attack on distant approaches. In general, the army enjoyed advantages in weapons, organization and mobility, superiority in the air and at sea.

Republic of China

China had a poorly armed and poorly organized army. Thus, many troops had absolutely no operational mobility, being tied to their places of deployment. In this regard, China's defensive strategy was based on tough defense, local offensive counter-operations, and the deployment of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. The nature of military operations was influenced by the political disunity of the country. The communists and nationalists, while nominally presenting a united front in the fight against the Japanese, poorly coordinated their actions and often found themselves embroiled in internecine strife. Having a very small air force with poorly trained crews and outdated equipment, China resorted to assistance from the USSR (at an early stage) and the United States, which was expressed in the supply of aircraft equipment and materials, sending volunteer specialists to participate in military operations and training Chinese pilots.

In general, both nationalists and communists planned to provide only passive resistance to Japanese aggression (especially after the United States and Great Britain entered the war against Japan), hoping for the defeat of the Japanese by the Allied forces and making efforts to create and strengthen the basis for a future war for power among themselves (creation of combat-ready troops and underground, strengthening control over unoccupied areas of the country, propaganda, etc.).

Start of the war

Most historians date the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War to the incident on the Lugouqiao Bridge (otherwise known as the Marco Polo Bridge), which occurred on July 7, but some Chinese historians set the starting point of the war at September 18, when the Mukden Incident occurred, during which the Kwantung Army under the pretext of protecting the railway connecting Port Arthur with Mukden from possible sabotage actions of the Chinese during “night exercises”, it captured the Mukden arsenal and nearby towns. Chinese forces were forced to retreat, and continued aggression left all of Manchuria in Japanese hands by February 1932. After this, until the official start of the Sino-Japanese War, there were constant Japanese seizures of territories in Northern China and battles of varying scale with the Chinese army. On the other hand, the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek carried out a number of operations to combat separatist militarists and communists.

On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops clashed with Chinese troops at the Lugouqiao Bridge near Beijing. A Japanese soldier disappeared during a “night exercise.” The Japanese issued an ultimatum demanding that the Chinese hand over the soldier or open the gates of the fortified city of Wanping to search for him. The refusal of the Chinese authorities led to a shootout between the Japanese company and the Chinese infantry regiment. It came to the use of not only small arms, but also artillery. This served as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of China, which the Japanese called the "China Incident."

First period of the war (July 1937 - October 1938)

After a series of unsuccessful negotiations between the Chinese and Japanese sides on a peaceful resolution of the conflict, on July 26, 1937, Japan switched to full-scale military operations north of the Yellow River with the forces of 3 divisions and 2 brigades (about 40 thousand people with 120 guns, 150 tanks and armored vehicles, 6 armored trains and support for up to 150 aircraft). Japanese troops quickly captured Beijing (Beiping) (28 July) and Tianjin (30 July). Over the next few months, the Japanese advanced south and west against little resistance, capturing Chahar Province and part of Suiyuan Province, reaching the upper bend of the Yellow River at Baoding. But by September, due to the increased combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, the growth of the partisan movement and supply problems, the offensive slowed down, and in order to expand the scale of the offensive, by September the Japanese were forced to transfer up to 300 thousand soldiers and officers to Northern China.

On August 8 - November 8, the Second Battle of Shanghai unfolded, during which numerous Japanese landings as part of Matsui's 3rd Expeditionary Force, with intensive support from the sea and air, managed to capture the city, despite strong resistance from the Chinese. At this time, the Japanese 5th Itagaki Division was ambushed and defeated in the north of Shanxi by the 115th Division (under the command of Nie Rongzhen) from the 8th March Army. The Japanese lost 3 thousand people and their main weapons. The Battle of Pingxinguan had great propaganda significance in China and became the largest battle between the communist army and the Japanese during the entire course of the war.

In January - April 1938, the Japanese offensive in the north resumed. In January the conquest of Shandong was completed. Japanese troops faced a strong guerrilla movement and were unable to effectively control the captured territory. In March - April 1938, the Battle of Taierzhuang unfolded, during which a 200,000-strong group of regular troops and partisans under the overall command of General Li Zongren cut off and surrounded a 60,000-strong group of Japanese, who ultimately managed to break out of the ring, losing 20,000 people killed and a large amount of military equipment.

In May - June 1939, the Japanese regrouped, concentrating more than 200 thousand soldiers and officers and about 400 tanks against 400 thousand poorly armed Chinese, practically devoid of military equipment, and continued the offensive, as a result of which Xuzhou (May 20) and Kaifeng (June 6) were taken ). In these battles, the Japanese used chemical and bacteriological weapons.

On October 22, 1938, a Japanese naval landing force, delivered on 12 transport ships under the cover of 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 2 gunboats and 3 minesweepers, landed on both sides of the Humen Strait and stormed the Chinese forts guarding the passage to Canton. On the same day, Chinese units of the 12th Army left the city without a fight. Japanese troops of the 21st Army entered the city, seizing warehouses with weapons, ammunition, equipment and food.

In general, during the first period of the war, the Japanese army, despite partial successes, was unable to achieve the main strategic goal - the destruction of the Chinese army. At the same time, the stretch of the front, the isolation of troops from supply bases and the growing Chinese partisan movement worsened the position of the Japanese.

Second period of the war (November 1938 - December 1941)

Japan decided to change the strategy of active struggle to a strategy of attrition. Japan is limited to only local operations at the front and is moving on to intensifying political struggle. This was caused by excessive tension and problems of control over the hostile population of the occupied territories. With most of the ports captured by the Japanese army, China was left with only three routes to obtain aid from the Allies - the narrow gauge road to Kunming from Haiphong in French Indochina; the winding Burma Road, which ran to Kunming through British Burma, and finally the Xinjiang Highway, which ran from the Sino-Soviet border through Xinjiang and Gansu Province.

On November 1, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek appealed to the Chinese people to continue the war of resistance against Japan to a victorious end. The Chinese Communist Party approved the speech during a meeting of Chongqing youth organizations. In the same month, Japanese troops managed to take the cities of Fuxin and Fuzhou with the help of amphibious assaults.

Japan makes peace proposals to the Kuomintang government on some terms favorable to Japan. This strengthens the internal party contradictions of the Chinese nationalists. As a consequence of this, there followed the betrayal of Chinese Vice Premier Wang Jingwei, who fled to Shanghai captured by the Japanese.

In February 1939, during the Hainan landing operation, the Japanese army, under the cover of ships of the Japanese 2nd Fleet, captured the cities of Junzhou and Haikou, losing two transport ships and a barge with troops.

From March 13 to April 3, 1939, the Nanchang Operation unfolded, during which Japanese troops consisting of the 101st and 106th Infantry Divisions, with the support of a Marine landing and the massive use of aviation and gunboats, managed to occupy the city of Nanchang and a number of other cities. At the end of April, the Chinese launched a successful counterattack on Nanchang and liberated the city of Hoan. However, then Japanese troops launched a local attack in the direction of the city of Ichang. Japanese troops entered Nanchang again on August 29.

In June 1939, the Chinese cities of Shantou (June 21) and Fuzhou (June 27) were taken by amphibious assault.

In September 1939, Chinese troops managed to stop the Japanese offensive 18 km north of the city of Changsha. On October 10, they launched a successful counteroffensive against units of the 11th Army in the direction of Nanchang, which they managed to occupy on October 10. During the operation, the Japanese lost up to 25 thousand people and more than 20 landing craft.

From November 14 to 25, the Japanese launched a landing of a 12,000-strong military group in the Pan Khoi area. During the Pankhoi landing operation and the subsequent offensive, the Japanese managed to capture the cities of Pankhoi, Qinzhou, Dantong and, finally, on November 24, after fierce fighting, Nanying. However, the advance on Lanzhou was stopped by a counterattack by General Bai Chongxi's 24th Army, and Japanese aircraft began bombing the city. On December 8, Chinese troops, with the assistance of the Zhongjin air group of Soviet Major S. Suprun, stopped the Japanese offensive from the Nanying area at the Kunlunguang line, after which (December 16, 1939) with the forces of the 86th and 10th armies, the Chinese began an offensive with the aim of encircling the Wuhan group of Japanese troops. The operation was supported from the flanks by the 21st and 50th armies. On the first day of the operation, the Japanese defense was broken through, but the further course of events led to a halt in the offensive, a retreat to their original positions and a transition to defensive actions. The Wuhan operation failed due to shortcomings in the Chinese army's command and control system.

Japanese occupation of China

In March 1940, Japan formed a puppet government in Nanjing in order to obtain political and military support in the fight against partisans in the rear. It was headed by former Vice-Premier of China Wang Jingwei, who defected to the Japanese.

In June-July, the successes of Japanese diplomacy in negotiations with Great Britain and France led to the cessation of military supplies to China through Burma and Indochina. On June 20, an Anglo-Japanese agreement was concluded on joint actions against violators of the order and security of Japanese military forces in China, according to which, in particular, Chinese silver worth $40 million, stored in the English and French missions in Tianjin, was transferred to Japan.

On August 20, 1940, a joint large-scale (up to 400 thousand people participated) offensive of the 4th, 8th Chinese Army (formed from communists) and guerrilla detachments of the Communist Party of China began against Japanese troops in the provinces of Shanxi, Chahar, Hubei and Henan, known as “ Battle of a Hundred Regiments. In Jiangsu province, there were a number of clashes between communist army units and the Kuomintang partisan detachments of Governor H. Deqin, as a result of which the latter were defeated. The result of the Chinese offensive was the liberation of a territory with a population of more than 5 million people and 73 large settlements. The personnel losses of the parties were approximately equal (about 20 thousand people on each side).

During 1940, Japanese troops limited themselves to only one offensive operation in the lower Hanshui River basin and successfully carried it out, capturing the city of Yichang.

The beginning of 1944 was characterized by offensive operations of a local nature.

In May - September 1944, the Japanese continued to conduct offensive operations in a southern direction. Japanese activity led to the fall of Changsha and Henyang. The Chinese fought stubbornly for Hengyang and counterattacked the enemy in a number of places, while Changsha was left without a fight.

At the same time, the Chinese launched an offensive in Yunnan Province with Group Y forces. The troops advanced in two columns, crossing the Salween River. The southern column encircled the Japanese at Longlin, but was driven back after a series of Japanese counterattacks. The northern column advanced more successfully, capturing the city of Tengchong with the support of the American 14th Air Force.

On October 4, the city of Fuzhou was captured by a Japanese naval landing. In the same place, the evacuation of troops of the 4th VR of China from the cities of Guilin, Liuzhou and Nanying begins; on November 10, the 31st Army of this VR was forced to capitulate to the 11th Army of Japan in the city of Guilin.

On December 20, Japanese troops advancing from the north, from the Guangzhou area and from Indochina, united in the city of Nanlu, establishing a through railway connection across all of China from Korea to Indochina.

At the end of the year, American aircraft transferred two Chinese divisions from Burma to China.

The year 1944 was also characterized by successful operations of the American submarine fleet off the Chinese coast.

On January 10, 1945, parts of a group of troops of General Wei Lihuang liberated the city of Wanting and crossed the Chinese-Burmese border, entering the territory of Burma, and on the 11th, troops of the 6th Front of the Japanese went on the offensive against the Chinese 9th BP in the direction of the cities of Ganzhou and Yizhang , Shaoguan.

In January - February, the Japanese army resumed its offensive in Southeast China, occupying vast territories in the coastal provinces - between Wuhan and the border of French Indochina. Three more air bases of the American 14th Air Force Chennault were captured.

In March 1945, the Japanese launched another offensive to seize crops in Central China. The forces of the 39th Infantry Division of the 11th Army struck in the direction of the city of Gucheng (Henan-Hubei operation). In March - April, the Japanese also managed to take two American air bases in China - Laohotou and Laohekou.

On April 5, the USSR unilaterally denounced the neutrality pact with Japan in connection with the commitments of the Soviet leadership, given at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, to enter the war against Japan three months after the victory over Germany, which at the moment was already close.

Realizing that his forces were too stretched, General Yasuji Okamura, in an effort to strengthen the Kwantung Army stationed in Manchuria, which was threatened by the entry of the USSR into the war, began to transfer troops to the north.

As a result of the Chinese counteroffensive, by May 30, the corridor leading to Indochina was cut. By July 1, the 100,000-strong Japanese group was surrounded in Canton, and about 100,000 more returned to Northern China under the attacks of the American 10th and 14th Air Armies. On July 27, they abandoned one of the previously captured American air bases in Guilin.

In May, Chinese troops of the 3rd VR attacked Fuzhou and managed to liberate the city from the Japanese. Active Japanese operations both here and in other areas were generally curtailed, and the army went on the defensive.

In June and July, the Japanese and Chinese nationalists carried out a series of punitive operations against the communist Special Region and parts of the CCP.

Fourth period of the war (August 1945 - September 1945)

At the same time, a struggle developed between the Chinese nationalists and communists for political influence. On August 10, the commander-in-chief of the CPC troops, Zhu De, gave the order for the communist troops to go on the offensive against the Japanese along the entire front, and on August 11, Chiang Kai-shek gave a similar order for all Chinese troops to go on the offensive, but it was specifically stipulated that the communists should not take part in this. -I and 8th armies. Despite this, the communists went on the offensive. Both communists and nationalists were now primarily concerned with establishing their power in the country after the victory over Japan, which was rapidly losing to its allies. At the same time, the USSR secretly supported primarily the communists, and the USA - the nationalists.

On September 2, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, representatives of the USA, Great Britain, the USSR, France and Japan signed the act of surrender of the Japanese armed forces. Thus ended the Second World War in Asia.

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance from the USSR to China

In the 1930s, the USSR systematically pursued a course of political support for China as a victim of Japanese aggression. Thanks to close contacts with the Communist Party of China and the difficult situation in which Chiang Kai-shek was placed by the rapid military actions of Japanese troops, the USSR became an active diplomatic force in rallying the forces of the Kuomintang government and the Communist Party of China.

In August 1937, a non-aggression pact was signed between China and the USSR, and the Nanjing government turned to the latter with a request for material assistance.

China's almost complete loss of opportunities for constant relations with the outside world has given the province of Xinjiang paramount importance as one of the country's most important land connections with the USSR and Europe. Therefore, in 1937, the Chinese government turned to the USSR with a request to provide assistance in creating the Sary-Ozek - Urumqi - Lanzhou highway for the delivery of weapons, aircraft, ammunition, etc. to China and the USSR. The Soviet government agreed.

From 1937 to 1941, the USSR regularly supplied weapons, ammunition, etc. to China by sea and through the province of Xinjiang, while the second route was a priority due to the naval blockade of the Chinese coast. The USSR concluded several loan agreements and contracts with China for the supply of Soviet weapons. On June 16, 1939, the Soviet-Chinese trade agreement was signed, concerning the trading activities of both states. In 1937-1940, over 300 Soviet military advisers worked in China. In total, over 5 thousand Soviet citizens worked there during these years. Among them were volunteer pilots, teachers and instructors, aircraft and tank assembly workers, aviation specialists, road and bridge specialists, transport workers, doctors and, finally, military advisers.

By the beginning of 1939, thanks to the efforts of military specialists from the USSR, losses in the Chinese army dropped sharply. If in the first years of the war the Chinese losses in killed and wounded were 800 thousand people (5:1 to the Japanese losses), then in the second year they were equal to the Japanese (300 thousand).

The history of Japanese aggression in China is briefly outlined on stone barrels near the walls of the Wanping Fortress at the Marco Polo Bridge

The Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945) was a war between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan that began before World War II and continued until its end.

Despite the fact that both states had been engaged in periodic hostilities since 1931, a full-scale war broke out in 1937 and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was a consequence of Japan's decades-long imperialist course for political and military dominance in China in order to seize huge raw materials. reserves and other resources. At the same time, growing Chinese nationalism and increasingly widespread ideas of self-determination (both Chinese and other peoples of the former Qing Empire) made a military clash inevitable. Until 1937, the sides clashed in sporadic fighting, so-called "incidents", as both sides, for many reasons, refrained from starting an all-out war. In 1931, the invasion of Manchuria (also known as the Mukden Incident) occurred. The last such incident was the Lugouqiao incident, the Japanese shelling of the Marco Polo Bridge on July 7, 1937, which marked the official start of a full-scale war between the two countries.

From 1937 to 1941, China fought with the help of the United States and the USSR, who were interested in dragging Japan into the “swamp” of the war in China. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Second Sino-Japanese War became part of World War II.

Name options

In the Russian historiographical tradition, the most common name is “The Japanese-Chinese War of 1937-1945.” In sources in the West, the name “Second Sino-Japanese War” is more often used. At the same time, some Chinese historians use the name “Eight Years' War of Resistance against Japan” (or simply “War of Resistance against Japan”), which is widely used in China.

Background to the conflict

The roots of the conflict lie in the industrial revolution that began in Japan in the second half of the 19th century. The development of the capitalist economy quickly exhausted the resources of the Japanese economy itself; there was an urgent need for new markets and raw material appendages. The first military actions took place at the end of the 19th century, when during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China, which was part of the Manchu Qing Empire, was defeated by Japan and forced to give up Taiwan and recognize the independence (renounce the protectorate) of Korea under the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

The Qing Empire was on the verge of collapse due to internal revolutionary uprisings and the expansion of foreign imperialism, while Japan became a great power thanks to effective modernization measures. The Republic of China was proclaimed in 1912 as a result of the Xinhai Revolution, which destroyed the Qing Empire. However, the nascent republic was even weaker than before - this dates back to the period of militaristic wars. The prospects for uniting the nation and repelling the imperialist threat looked very remote. Some military leaders even teamed up with various foreign forces in attempts at mutual destruction. For example, the ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin, adhered to military and economic cooperation with the Japanese. Thus, Japan was the main foreign threat to China during the early republic.

In 1915, Japan published the Twenty-One Demands, promoting its political and commercial interests in China. After World War I, Japan acquired the German sphere of influence in Shandong. China, under the government in Beijing, was fragmented and unable to resist foreign invasion until the Northern Expedition of 1926-1928, organized by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), which competed with the government based in Guangzhou. The Northern Expedition passed through China, suppressing competing forces, until it was stopped in Shandong by the forces of the Beijing regime, which was supported by the Japanese, who tried to prevent the Kuomintang army from uniting China under its rule. These events culminated in the Jinan Incident in 1928, in which the Kuomintang army and the Japanese were involved in a brief military conflict. That same year, the ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin, was assassinated due to weakening cooperation with the Japanese. Following these events, the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek achieved its final goal - the unification of China. This happened in 1928.

Numerous conflicts between China and Japan continued to exist due to the rise of Chinese nationalism and because one of the ultimate goals of Sun Yat-sen's political philosophy (the Three Principles of the People) was to rid China of foreign imperialism. However, the Northern Expedition united China only nominally - civil wars between former military leaders and rival Kuomintang factions fractured this unity. In addition, the Chinese communists rebelled against the central government, demanding a purge of its composition. As a result, the Chinese central government was distracted by civil wars and followed a policy of prioritizing internal pacification over resistance to external enemies. This situation resulted in little resistance to ongoing Japanese aggression. In 1931, immediately after the Mukden Incident, Japan invaded Manchuria. After five months of struggle, in 1932, a pro-Japanese puppet regime was established in Manchuria - the state of Manchukuo. It was recognized by the last emperor of China, Pu Yi, who, with the support of the Japanese, was placed at its head. Unable to challenge Japan directly, China asked the League of Nations for help. The League conducted an investigation, after which it condemned Japan for the invasion of Manchuria and forced Japan to withdraw from the League of Nations. From the second half of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, peacekeeping was the basis of the policy of the world community, and no state was willing to voluntarily take a more active position than diplomatic protests. The Japanese side saw Manchuria as a source of primary raw materials and a buffer state, separating the lands it had seized from the Soviet Union.

The Mukden Incident was followed by ongoing conflicts. In 1932, Chinese and Japanese soldiers fought a short war called the January 28 Incident. This war led to the demilitarization of Shanghai, in which the Chinese were prohibited from stationing their armed forces. In Manchukuo there was a long campaign to combat the anti-Japanese volunteer armies, which arose out of popular disappointment in the policy of non-resistance to the Japanese. In 1933, the Japanese attacked the Great Wall area, leading to an armistice that gave the Japanese control of Rehe Province and created a demilitarized zone between the Great Wall and the Beijing-Tianjin area. The Japanese goal was to create another buffer zone, this time between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government, whose capital was Nanjing.

On top of this, Japan continued to use internal conflicts between Chinese political factions to weaken them mutually. This confronted the Nanjing government with a fact: for several years after the Northern Expedition, the political power of the Nationalist government extended only to the areas around the Yangtze River Delta, while other regions of China were essentially held in the hands of regional authorities. Thus, Japan often paid off or created special ties with these regional powers to undermine the central Nationalist government's efforts to unify China. To accomplish this, Japan sought out various Chinese traitors to interact with and assist these people heading some Japanese-friendly autonomous governments. This policy was called the "specialization" of North China and was also known as the "North China Autonomy Movement." Specialization affected the northern provinces of Chahar, Suiyuan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong.

Under pressure from Japan, in 1935, China signed the Japanese Conditions for Normalization in Northern China, which banned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from party activities in Hebei and effectively ended Chinese control of Northern China. That same year, an agreement was concluded between the Chinese authorities in the Mongolian province of Chahar and the Japanese to demilitarize the eastern part of the province and remove its governor, which expelled the CCP from Chahar. Thus, by the end of 1935, the Chinese central government had effectively abandoned Northern China. Accordingly, Japanese-backed authorities were established on its territory (Mengjiang and the Anti-Communist Autonomous Government of Eastern Ji).

Causes of the war

Each of the states involved in the war had its own motives, goals and reasons for participating in it. To understand the objective causes of the conflict, it is important to consider all participants separately.

Empire of Japan: Imperialist Japan went to war in an attempt to destroy the Chinese Kuomintang central government and install puppet regimes following Japanese interests. However, Japan's failure to bring the war in China to its desired end, coupled with increasingly unfavorable Western trade restrictions in response to ongoing actions in China, resulted in Japan's greater need for natural resources that were available in British-controlled Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. , the Netherlands and the USA respectively. The Japanese strategy of acquiring these inaccessible resources led to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the opening of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Republic of China (under Kuomintang): Before full-scale hostilities began, Nationalist China focused on modernizing its military and building a viable defense industry to increase its combat power as a counterweight to Japan. Since China was united under the rule of the Kuomintang only formally, it was in a constant state of struggle with the communists and various militaristic associations. However, since war with Japan became inevitable, there was nowhere to retreat, even despite China's complete unpreparedness to fight a vastly superior enemy. In general, China pursued the following goals: to resist Japanese aggression, to unite China under the central government, to free the country from foreign imperialism, to achieve victory over communism and to be reborn as a strong state. Essentially, this war looked like a war for the revival of the nation. In modern Taiwanese military historical studies, there is a tendency to overestimate the role of the NRA in this war, although in general the level of combat effectiveness of the National Revolutionary Army was quite low.

China (under Chinese Communist Party): The Chinese Communists feared a large-scale war against the Japanese, leading guerrilla movements and political activity in the occupied territories to expand their controlled lands. The Communist Party avoided direct combat against the Japanese, while competing with the Nationalists for influence with the goal of remaining the main political force in the country after the conflict was resolved.

Soviet Union: The USSR, due to the aggravation of the situation in the West, was interested in peace with Japan in the east in order to avoid being drawn into a war on two fronts in the event of a possible conflict. In this regard, China seemed to be a good buffer zone between the spheres of interest of the USSR and Japan. It was beneficial for the USSR to support any central government in China so that it would organize a rebuff to Japanese intervention as effectively as possible, diverting Japanese aggression from Soviet territory.

UK: During the 1920s and 1930s, the British position towards Japan was peaceful. Thus, both states were part of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Many in the British community in China supported Japan's actions to weaken the Nationalist Chinese government. This was due to the Chinese Nationalists canceling most foreign concessions and restoring the right to set their own taxes and tariffs, without British influence. All this had a negative impact on British economic interests. With the outbreak of World War II, Great Britain fought Germany in Europe, hoping at the same time that the situation on the Sino-Japanese front would be in a stalemate. This would buy time for the return of the Pacific colonies in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Burma and Singapore. Most of the British armed forces were occupied with the war in Europe and could devote only very little attention to the war in the Pacific theater.

USA: The USA followed a policy of isolationism until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but helped China with volunteers and diplomatic measures, but at the same time supplied Japan with resources, equipment, machinery and oil until July 25, 1941 until 1940. The United States also imposed a steel trade embargo (July 1940) against Japan, demanding the withdrawal of its troops from China. With the US being drawn into World War II, particularly the war against Japan, China became a natural ally for the United States. There was American assistance to this country in its fight against Japan.

Vichy France: The main supply routes for American military aid ran through the Chinese province of Yunnan and Tonkin, the northern region of French Indochina, so Japan wanted to block the Sino-Indochina border. In 1940, after France's defeat in the European War and the establishment of the Vichy puppet regime, Japan invaded French Indochina. In March 1941, the Japanese finally ousted the French from Indochina, proclaiming their own colonies there.

Free France: In December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Free French leader Charles de Gaulle declared war on Japan. The French acted on the basis of all-Allied interests, as well as in order to keep the Asian colonies of France under their control.

In general, all allies of Nationalist China had their own goals and objectives, often very different from the Chinese. This must be taken into account when considering the reasons for certain actions of different states.

Strengths of the parties

Empire of Japan

The Japanese army, allocated for combat operations in China, had 12 divisions, numbering 240-300 thousand soldiers and officers, 700 aircraft, about 450 tanks and armored vehicles, more than 1.5 thousand artillery pieces. The operational reserve consisted of units of the Kwantung Army and 7 divisions stationed in the metropolis. In addition, there were about 150 thousand Manchu and Mongol soldiers serving under Japanese officers. Significant naval forces were allocated to support the actions of the ground forces from the sea. The Japanese troops were well trained and equipped.

Republic of China

By the beginning of the conflict, China had 1,900,000 soldiers and officers, 500 aircraft (according to other sources, in the summer of 1937, the Chinese Air Force had about 600 combat aircraft, of which 305 were fighters, but no more than half were combat-ready), 70 tanks, 1,000 artillery guns At the same time, only 300 thousand were directly subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the NRA, Chiang Kai-shek, and in total there were approximately 1 million people under the control of the Nanjing government, while the rest of the troops represented the forces of local militarists. Additionally, the fight against the Japanese was nominally supported by the Communists, who had a guerrilla army of approximately 150,000 men in northwestern China. The Kuomintang formed the 8th Army from 45 thousand of these partisans under the command of Zhu De. Chinese aviation consisted of outdated aircraft with inexperienced Chinese or hired foreign crews. There were no trained reserves. Chinese industry was not prepared to fight a major war.

In general, the Chinese armed forces were superior in numbers to the Japanese, but were significantly inferior in technical equipment, training, morale, and most importantly, in their organization.

Plans of the parties

Empire of Japan

The Japanese Empire aimed to retain Chinese territory by creating various structures in the rear that made it possible to control the occupied lands as effectively as possible. The army had to act with the support of the fleet. Naval landings were actively used to quickly capture populated areas without the need for a frontal attack on distant approaches. In general, the army enjoyed advantages in weapons, organization and mobility, superiority in the air and at sea.

Republic of China

China had a poorly armed and poorly organized army. Thus, many military units and even formations had absolutely no operational mobility, being tied to their places of deployment. In this regard, China's defensive strategy was based on tough defense, local offensive counter-operations, and the deployment of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. The nature of military operations was also influenced by the political disunity of the country. The communists and nationalists, while nominally presenting a united front in the fight against the Japanese, poorly coordinated their actions and often found themselves embroiled in internecine strife. Having a very small air force with poorly trained crews and outdated equipment, China resorted to assistance from the USSR (at an early stage) and the United States, which was expressed in the supply of aircraft equipment and materials, sending volunteer specialists to participate in military operations and training Chinese pilots.

In general, both nationalists and communists planned to provide only passive resistance to Japanese aggression (especially after the entry of the United States and Great Britain into the war against Japan), hoping for the defeat of the Japanese by allied forces and making efforts to create and strengthen the basis for a future war for power among themselves (creation of combat-ready troops and underground, strengthening control over unoccupied areas of the country, propaganda, etc.).

Start of the war

Most historians date the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War to the incident on the Lugouqiao Bridge (otherwise known as the Marco Polo Bridge), which occurred on July 7, 1937, but some Chinese historians set the starting point of the war at September 18, 1931, when the Mukden Incident occurred, during which the Kwantung The army, under the pretext of protecting the railway connecting Port Arthur with Mukden from possible sabotage actions of the Chinese during “night exercises,” captured the Mukden arsenal and nearby towns. Chinese forces were forced to retreat, and continued aggression left all of Manchuria in Japanese hands by February 1932. After this, until the official start of the Sino-Japanese War, there were constant Japanese seizures of territories in Northern China and battles of varying scale with the Chinese army. On the other hand, the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek carried out a number of operations to combat separatist militarists and communists.

On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops clashed with Chinese troops at the Lugouqiao Bridge near Beijing. A Japanese soldier disappeared during a “night exercise.” The Japanese issued an ultimatum demanding that the Chinese hand over the soldier or open the gates of the fortified city of Wanping to search for him. The refusal of the Chinese authorities led to a shootout between the Japanese company and the Chinese infantry regiment. It came to the use of not only small arms, but also artillery. This served as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of China. In Japanese historiography, this war is traditionally called the “Chinese incident”, since initially the Japanese did not plan large-scale hostilities with China.

After a series of unsuccessful negotiations between the Chinese and Japanese sides on a peaceful resolution of the conflict, on July 26, 1937, Japan switched to full-scale military operations north of the Yellow River with the forces of 3 divisions and 2 brigades (about 40 thousand people with 120 guns, 150 tanks and armored vehicles, 6 armored trains and support for up to 150 aircraft). Japanese troops quickly captured Beijing (Beiping) (28 July) and Tianjin (30 July). Over the next few months, the Japanese advanced south and west against little resistance, capturing Chahar Province and part of Suiyuan Province, reaching the upper bend of the Yellow River at Baoding. But by September, due to the increased combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, the growth of the partisan movement and supply problems, the offensive slowed down, and in order to expand the scale of the offensive, the Japanese were forced to transfer up to 300 thousand soldiers and officers to Northern China by September.

On August 8 - November 8, the Second Battle of Shanghai unfolded, during which numerous Japanese landings as part of Matsui's 3rd Expeditionary Force, with intensive support from the sea and air, managed to capture the city of Shanghai, despite strong resistance from the Chinese; A pro-Japanese puppet government was formed in Shanghai. At this time, the Japanese 5th Itagaki Division was ambushed and defeated in the north of Shanxi by the 115th Division (under the command of Nie Rongzhen) from the 8th Army. The Japanese lost 3 thousand people and their main weapons. The Battle of Pingxinguan had great propaganda significance in China and became the largest battle between the communist army and the Japanese during the entire course of the war.

In November - December 1937, the Japanese army launched an attack on Nanjing along the Yangtze River without encountering strong resistance. On December 12, 1937, Japanese aircraft carried out an unprovoked raid on British and American ships stationed near Nanjing. As a result, the gunboat Panay was sunk. However, the conflict was avoided through diplomatic measures. On December 13, Nanjing fell and the government evacuated to the city of Hankou. The Japanese army carried out a bloody massacre of civilians in the city for 5 days, as a result of which 200 thousand people died. As a result of the battles for Nanjing, the Chinese army lost all tanks, artillery, aviation and navy. On December 14, 1937, the creation of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, controlled by the Japanese, was proclaimed in Beijing.

In January - April 1938, the Japanese offensive in the north resumed. In January the conquest of Shandong was completed. Japanese troops faced a strong guerrilla movement and were unable to effectively control the captured territory. In March - April 1938, the Battle of Taierzhuang unfolded, during which a 200,000-strong group of regular troops and partisans under the overall command of General Li Zongren cut off and surrounded a 60,000-strong group of Japanese, who ultimately managed to break out of the ring, losing 20,000 people killed and a large amount of military equipment. On March 28, 1938, in the occupied territory of central China, the Japanese proclaimed the creation of the so-called “Reformed Government of the Republic of China” in Nanjing.

In May - June 1938, the Japanese regrouped, concentrating more than 200 thousand soldiers and officers and about 400 tanks against 400 thousand poorly armed Chinese, practically devoid of military equipment, and continued the offensive, as a result of which Xuzhou (May 20) and Kaifeng (6 June). In these battles, the Japanese used chemical and bacteriological weapons.

In May 1938, the New 4th Army was created under the command of Ye Ting, formed from communists and stationed mainly in the Japanese rear south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze.

In June - July 1938, the Chinese stopped the Japanese strategic offensive on Hankou through Zhengzhou by destroying the dams that prevented the Yellow River from overflowing and flooding the surrounding area. At the same time, many Japanese soldiers died, a large number of tanks, trucks and guns ended up under water or stuck in the mud. But many Chinese civilians also died.

Changing the direction of attack to a more southern one, the Japanese captured Hankow (October 25) during long, grueling battles. Chiang Kai-shek decided to leave the Wuhan Tricity and moved his capital to Chongqing.

On October 22, 1938, a Japanese naval landing force, delivered on 12 transport ships under the cover of 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 2 gunboats and 3 minesweepers, landed on both sides of the Humen Strait and stormed the Chinese forts guarding the passage to Canton. On the same day, Chinese units of the 12th Army left the city without a fight. Japanese troops of the 21st Army entered the city, seizing warehouses with weapons, ammunition, equipment and food.

In general, during the first period of the war, the Japanese army, despite partial successes, was unable to achieve the main strategic goal - the destruction of the Chinese army. At the same time, the stretch of the front, the isolation of troops from supply bases and the growing Chinese partisan movement worsened the position of the Japanese.

Japan, due to the emerging acute shortage of resources, decided to change the strategy of active struggle to a strategy of attrition. Japan is limited to only local operations at the front and is moving on to intensifying political struggle. This was caused by excessive tension and problems of control over the hostile population of the occupied territories. With most of the ports captured by the Japanese army, China was left with only three routes to obtain aid from the Allies - the narrow gauge road to Kunming from Haiphong in French Indochina; the winding Burma Road, which ran to Kunming through British Burma and, finally, the Xinjiang Highway, which ran from the Soviet-Chinese border through Xinjiang and Gansu Province.

On November 1, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek appealed to the Chinese people to continue the war of resistance against Japan to a victorious end. The Chinese Communist Party approved the speech during a meeting of Chongqing youth organizations. In the same month, Japanese troops managed to take the cities of Fuxin and Fuzhou with the help of amphibious assaults.

Japan makes peace proposals to the Kuomintang government on some terms favorable to Japan. This strengthens the internal party contradictions of the Chinese nationalists. As a consequence of this, there followed the betrayal of Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Jingwei, who fled to Shanghai captured by the Japanese.

In February 1939, during the Hainan landing operation, the Japanese army, under the cover of ships of the Japanese 2nd Fleet, captured the cities of Junzhou and Haikou, losing two transport ships and a barge with troops.

From March 13 to April 3, 1939, the Nanchang Operation unfolded, during which Japanese troops consisting of the 101st and 106th Infantry Divisions, with the support of a Marine landing and the massive use of aviation and gunboats, managed to occupy the city of Nanchang and a number of other cities. At the end of April, the Chinese launched a successful counterattack on Nanchang and liberated the city of Hoan. However, then Japanese troops launched a local attack in the direction of the city of Ichang. Japanese troops entered Nanchang again on August 29.

In June 1939, the Chinese cities of Shantou (June 21) and Fuzhou (June 27) were taken by amphibious assault.

In September 1939, Chinese troops managed to stop the Japanese offensive 18 km north of the city of Changsha. On October 10, they launched a counteroffensive against units of the 11th Army in the direction of Nanchang, which they managed to occupy on October 10. During the operation, the Japanese lost up to 25 thousand people and more than 20 landing craft.

From November 14 to 25, the Japanese launched a landing of a 12,000-strong military group in the Pan Khoi area. During the Pankhoi landing operation and the subsequent offensive, the Japanese managed to capture the cities of Pankhoi, Qinzhou, Dantong and, finally, on November 24, after fierce fighting, Nanying. However, the advance on Lanzhou was stopped by a counterattack by General Bai Chongxi's 24th Army, and Japanese aircraft began bombing the city. On December 8, Chinese troops, with the assistance of the Zhongjin air group of Soviet Major S. Suprun, stopped the Japanese offensive from the Nanying area at the Kunlunguang line, after which (December 16, 1939) with the forces of the 86th and 10th armies, the Chinese began an offensive with the aim of encircling the Wuhan group of Japanese troops. The operation was supported from the flanks by the 21st and 50th armies. On the first day of the operation, the Japanese defense was broken through, but the further course of events led to a halt in the offensive, a retreat to their original positions and a transition to defensive actions. The Wuhan operation failed due to shortcomings in the Chinese army's command and control system.

In March 1940, Japan formed a puppet government in Nanjing in order to obtain political and military support in the fight against partisans in the rear. It was headed by former Vice-Premier of China Wang Jingwei, who defected to the Japanese.

In June-July, the successes of Japanese diplomacy in negotiations with Great Britain and France led to the cessation of military supplies to China through Burma and Indochina. On June 20, an Anglo-Japanese agreement was concluded on joint actions against violators of the order and security of Japanese military forces in China, according to which, in particular, Chinese silver worth $40 million, stored in the English and French missions in Tianjin, was transferred to Japan.

On August 20, 1940, a joint large-scale (up to 400 thousand people participated) offensive of the Chinese 4th, 8th Army (formed from communists) and partisan detachments of the Communist Party of China began against Japanese troops in the provinces of Shanxi, Chahar, Hubei and Henan, known as “ Battle of a Hundred Regiments. In Jiangsu province, there were a number of clashes between communist army units and the Kuomintang partisan detachments of Governor H. Deqin, as a result of which the latter were defeated. The result of the Chinese offensive was the liberation of a territory with a population of more than 5 million people and 73 large settlements. The personnel losses on both sides were approximately equal (about 20 thousand people on each side).

On October 18, 1940, Winston Churchill decided to reopen the Burma Road. This was done with the approval of the United States, which intended to carry out military supplies to China under Lend-Lease.

During 1940, Japanese troops limited themselves to only one offensive operation in the lower Hanshui River basin and successfully carried it out, capturing the city of Yichang.

In January 1941, in Anhui province, Kuomintang military formations attacked units of the 4th Army of the Communist Party. Its commander Ye Ting, who arrived at the headquarters of the Kuomintang troops for negotiations, was arrested by deception. This was caused by Ye Ting's disregard of Chiang Kai-shek's orders to attack the Japanese, which resulted in the latter being court-martialed. Relations between communists and nationalists deteriorated. Meanwhile, the 50,000-strong Japanese army carried out an unsuccessful offensive in the provinces of Hubei and Henan in order to connect the Central and Northern fronts.

By March 1941, two large operational groups of the Kuomintang government were concentrated against areas controlled by the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as the CCP): in the northwest, the 34th Army Group of General Hu Zongnan (16 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions) and in the provinces Anhui and Jiangsu - General Liu Pingxiang's 21st Army Group and General Tang Enbo's 31st Army Group (15 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions). On March 2, the CCP put forward a new "Twelve Demands" to the Chinese government to reach an agreement between the Communists and the Nationalists.

On April 13, the Soviet-Japanese Treaty of Neutrality was signed, guaranteeing the USSR that Japan would not enter the war in the Soviet Far East if Germany nevertheless started a war with the Soviet Union.

A series of offensives undertaken by the Japanese army during 1941 (the Yichang Operation, the Fujian Landing Operation, the offensive in Shanxi Province, the Yichang Operation and the Second Changshai Operation) and the air offensive on Chongqing, the capital of Kuomintang China, did not produce any particular results and did not lead to a change in the balance of forces. in China.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the colonies of the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, which changed the balance of opposing forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Already on December 8, the Japanese began bombing British Hong Kong and advancing with the 38th Infantry Division. On December 9, Chiang Kai-shek’s government declared war on the “Axis countries”: Germany and Italy, and on December 10 - on Japan (the war had gone on without a formal declaration until that time).

On December 24, the Japanese launched the third counter-offensive of the war on Changsha, and on December 25, units of the 38th Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army took Hong Kong, forcing the remnants of the British garrison (12 thousand people) to surrender, while the losses of Japanese troops during the battles for The island consisted of 3 thousand people. The Third Changshai Operation was unsuccessful and ended on January 15, 1942 with the withdrawal of Japanese units of the 11th Army to their original positions.

On December 26, an agreement on a military alliance was concluded between China, Great Britain and the United States. A coalition command was also created to coordinate the military actions of the allies, who opposed the Japanese as a united front. So, in March 1942, Chinese troops in the 5th and 6th armies under the overall command of the American General Stilwell (Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army Chiang Kai-shek) arrived from China to British Burma along the Burma Road to fight the Japanese invasion.

In May-June, the Japanese carried out the Zhejiang-Jiangxi offensive operation, taking several cities, the Lishui air force base and the Zhejiang-Hunan railway. Several Chinese units were surrounded (units of the 88th and 9th armies).

Throughout the period 1941-1943, the Japanese also carried out punitive operations against communist forces. This was caused by the need to combat the ever-increasing partisan movement. Thus, within a year (from the summer of 1941 to the summer of 1942), as a result of the punitive operations of the Japanese troops, the territory of the partisan regions of the CPC was halved. During this time, units of the 8th Army and the New 4th Army of the CPC lost up to 150 thousand soldiers in battles with the Japanese.

In July-December 1942, local battles took place, as well as several local offensives by both Chinese and Japanese troops, which did not particularly affect the overall course of military operations.

Due to the Japanese capture of Burma, supplies of goods to China were reduced even more, and an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition began to be felt in parts of the Chinese army. In response, the British begin to build the Ledo Road from the Indian city of Assam to the Burma Road, bypassing Japanese-occupied territory.

In 1943, China, which found itself in practical isolation, was very weakened. Japan, on the other hand, used the tactics of small local operations, the so-called “rice offensives,” aimed at exhausting the Chinese army, seizing provisions in the newly occupied territories and depriving their already starving enemy. During this period, the Chinese air group of Brigadier General Claire Chennault, formed from the Flying Tigers volunteer group, which had been operating in China since 1941, was active.

On January 9, 1943, the Nanjing puppet government in China declared war on Great Britain and the United States.

The beginning of the year was characterized by local battles between the Japanese and Chinese armies. In March, the Japanese unsuccessfully tried to encircle the Chinese group in the Huaiyin-Yangchenghu area in Jiangsu Province (Huaiyin-Yancheng Operation).

In May - June, the Japanese 11th Army went on the offensive from a bridgehead on the Yichang River in the direction of the Chinese capital, Chongqing, but was counterattacked by Chinese units and retreated to their original positions (Chongqing Operation).

At the end of 1943, the Chinese army successfully repelled one of the Japanese “rice offensives” in Hunan Province, winning the Battle of Changde (November 23 - December 10).

In 1944-1945, a de facto truce was established between the Japanese and Chinese communists. The Japanese completely stopped punitive raids against the communists. This was beneficial to both sides - the Communists were able to consolidate control over Northwestern China, and the Japanese freed up forces for the war in the south.

The beginning of 1944 was characterized by offensive operations of a local nature.

On April 14, 1944, units of the 12th Japanese Army of the Northern Front went on the offensive against the Chinese troops of the 1st Military Region (VR) in the direction of the city. Zhengzhou, Queshan, breaking through Chinese defenses with armored vehicles. This marked the beginning of the Beijing-Hankous operation; a day later, units of the 11th Army of the Central Front moved towards them from the Xinyang area, going on the offensive against the 5th Chinese VR with the aim of encircling the Chinese group in the valley of the river. Huaihe. 148 thousand Japanese soldiers and officers were involved in this operation in the main directions. The offensive was successfully completed by May 9. Units of both armies united in the area of ​​the city of Queshan. During the operation, the Japanese captured the strategically important city of Zhengzhou (April 19), as well as Luoyang (May 25). Most of the territory of Henan Province and the entire railway line from Beijing to Hankou were in the hands of the Japanese.

A further development of active offensive combat operations of the Japanese army was the Hunan-Guilin operation of the 23rd Army against the Chinese troops of the 4th VR in the direction of Liuzhou.

In May - September 1944, the Japanese continued to conduct offensive operations in a southern direction. Japanese activity led to the fall of Changsha and Henyang. The Chinese fought stubbornly for Hengyang and counterattacked the enemy in a number of places, while Changsha was left without a fight.

At the same time, the Chinese launched an offensive in Yunnan Province with Group Y forces. The troops advanced in two columns, crossing the Salween River. The southern column encircled the Japanese at Longlin, but was driven back after a series of Japanese counterattacks. The northern column advanced more successfully, capturing the city of Tengchong with the support of the American 14th Air Force.

On October 4, the city of Fuzhou was captured by a Japanese landing force from the sea. In the same place, the evacuation of troops of the 4th VR of China from the cities of Guilin, Liuzhou and Nanying begins; on November 10, the 31st Army of this VR was forced to capitulate to the 11th Army of Japan in the city of Guilin.

On December 20, Japanese troops advancing from the north, from the Guangzhou area and from Indochina, united in the city of Nanlu, establishing a through railway connection across all of China from Korea to Indochina.

At the end of the year, American aircraft transferred two Chinese divisions from Burma to China.

The year 1944 was also characterized by successful operations of the American submarine fleet off the Chinese coast.

On January 10, 1945, parts of the group of troops of General Wei Lihuang liberated the city of Wanting and crossed the Chinese-Burmese border, entering the territory of Burma, and on January 11, the troops of the 6th Front of the Japanese went on the offensive against the Chinese 9th BP in the direction of the cities of Ganzhou and Yizhang , Shaoguan.

In January - February, the Japanese army resumed its offensive in Southeast China, occupying vast territories in the coastal provinces - between Wuhan and the border of French Indochina. Three more air bases of the American 14th Air Force Chennault were captured.

In March 1945, the Japanese launched another offensive to seize crops in Central China. The forces of the 39th Infantry Division of the 11th Army struck in the direction of the city of Gucheng (Henan-Hubei operation). In March - April, the Japanese also managed to take two American air bases in China - Laohotou and Laohekou.

On April 5, the USSR unilaterally denounced the neutrality pact with Japan in connection with the commitments of the Soviet leadership, given at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, to enter the war against Japan three months after the victory over Germany, which at that time was already close.

Realizing that his forces were too stretched, General Yasuji Okamura, in an effort to strengthen the Kwantung Army stationed in Manchuria, which was threatened by the entry of the USSR into the war, began to transfer troops to the north.

As a result of the Chinese counteroffensive, by May 30, the corridor leading to Indochina was cut. By July 1, the 100,000-strong Japanese group was surrounded in Canton, and about 100,000 more returned to Northern China under the attacks of the American 10th and 14th Air Armies. On July 27, they abandoned one of the previously captured American air bases in Guilin.

In May, Chinese troops of the 3rd VR attacked Fuzhou and managed to liberate the city from the Japanese. Active Japanese operations both here and in other areas were generally curtailed, and the army went on the defensive.

In June and July, the Japanese and Chinese nationalists carried out a series of punitive operations against the communist Special Region and parts of the CCP.

On August 8, 1945, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR officially joined the Potsdam Declaration of the USA, Great Britain and China and declared war on Japan. By this time, Japan was already drained of blood and its ability to continue the war was minimal.

Soviet troops, taking advantage of the quantitative and qualitative superiority of troops, launched a decisive offensive in Northeast China and quickly crushed the Japanese defenses. (See: Soviet-Japanese War).

At the same time, a struggle developed between the Chinese Nationalists and Communists for political influence. On August 10, the commander-in-chief of the CPC troops, Zhu De, gave the order for the communist troops to go on the offensive against the Japanese along the entire front, and on August 11, Chiang Kai-shek gave a similar order for all Chinese troops to go on the offensive, but it was specifically stipulated that the communists should not take part in this. -I and 8th armies. Despite this, the communists went on the offensive. Both communists and nationalists were now primarily concerned with establishing their power in the country after the victory over Japan, which was rapidly losing to its allies. At the same time, the USSR secretly supported primarily the communists, and the USA - the nationalists.

The entry of the USSR into the war and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki accelerated the final defeat and defeat of Japan.

On August 14, when it became clear that the Kwantung Army had suffered a crushing defeat, the Japanese Emperor announced Japan's surrender.

On August 14-15, a ceasefire was declared. But despite this decision, individual Japanese units continued desperate resistance throughout the entire theater of military operations until September 7-8, 1945.

On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, representatives of the United States, Great Britain, the USSR, France and Japan signed the act of surrender of the Japanese armed forces. On September 9, 1945, He Yingqin, representing both the government of the Republic of China and the Allied Command in Southeast Asia, accepted the surrender from the commander of Japanese forces in China, General Okamura Yasuji. Thus ended the Second World War in Asia.

Blitzkrieg in Soviet style.

Use of chemical weapons

The army of the Empire of Japan used chemical weapons against Chinese troops, which, with their massive use and the almost complete absence of chemical protection and chemical reconnaissance of the Chinese troops, led to large losses in their ranks.

Foreign aid to China

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance to the USSR

In the 1930s, the USSR systematically pursued a course of political support for China as a victim of Japanese aggression. Thanks to close contacts with the Communist Party of China and the difficult situation in which Chiang Kai-shek was placed by the rapid military actions of Japanese troops, the USSR became an active diplomatic force in rallying the forces of the Kuomintang government and the Communist Party of China.

In August 1937, a non-aggression pact was signed between China and the USSR, and the Nanjing government turned to the latter with a request for material assistance. On March 1, 1938, a Soviet-Chinese agreement was signed, according to which the USSR provided China with a loan of $50 million for the purchase of Soviet goods, as well as for their delivery to Chinese territory, and the loan and interest on it were to be repaid by the supply of Chinese goods. On June 13, 1939, a bilateral agreement was concluded on a new Soviet loan to China in the amount of $150 million for a period of 10 years.

China's almost complete loss of opportunities for permanent relations with the outside world has given the province of Xinjiang paramount importance as one of the country's most important land connections with the USSR and Europe. Therefore, in 1937, the Chinese government turned to the USSR with a request for assistance in creating the Sary-Ozek - Urumqi - Lanzhou highway for the delivery of weapons, aircraft, ammunition, etc. to China from the USSR. The Soviet government agreed and the road was built.

From 1937 to 1941, the USSR regularly supplied weapons, ammunition, etc. to China by sea and through the Xinjiang province. The first batches of weapons and military equipment went by sea (from November 1937 to February 1938) from Odessa, since this route was more convenient - one ship carried 10 thousand tons of cargo, and one car only 1 ton (in addition, for each the truck required another 15 camels to transport fuel). But after the Japanese established a naval blockade of the Chinese coast, the land route became a priority. To ensure transportation of fuel, in 1938 an agreement was concluded between the authorities of the USSR, China and the province of Xinjiang on the construction of an oil refinery in Tushanzi, which began operation in 1939 (after Soviet geologists were convinced of the presence of oil in the area).

On June 16, 1939, the Soviet-Chinese trade agreement was signed, concerning the trading activities of both states. In 1937-1940, over 300 Soviet military advisers worked in China. In total, over 5 thousand Soviet citizens worked there during these years, including A. Vlasov and V.I. Chuikov, who left memoirs published later under the title “Mission in China.” Among them were volunteer pilots, teachers and instructors, aircraft and tank assembly workers, aviation specialists, road and bridge specialists, transport workers, doctors and, finally, military advisers.

By the beginning of 1939, thanks to the efforts of military specialists from the USSR, losses in the Chinese army dropped sharply. If in the first year of the war the Chinese losses in killed and wounded were 800 thousand people (5:1 to the Japanese losses), then in the second year they were equal to the Japanese (300 thousand).

On September 1, 1940, the first stage of a new aircraft assembly plant built by Soviet specialists was launched in Urumqi.

In total, during the period 1937-1941, the USSR supplied China with: 1285 aircraft (of which 777 fighters, 408 bombers, 100 training aircraft), 1600 guns of various calibers, 82 T-26 light tanks, heavy and light machine guns - 14 thousand, cars and tractors - 1850..

In 1942 - 1943, due to the deterioration of relations, Soviet enterprises in Xinjiang (oil refinery and aircraft assembly plants (No. 600)) were dismantled, and their equipment was exported to the USSR.

Combat actions of Soviet pilots

The Chinese Air Force had about 100 aircraft. Japan had a tenfold superiority in aviation. One of the largest Japanese air bases was located in Taiwan, near Taipei.

By the beginning of 1938, a batch of new SB bombers arrived from the USSR to China as part of Operation Zet. The chief military adviser for the Air Force, brigade commander P.V. Rychagov and air attache P.F. Zhigarev (future commander-in-chief of the USSR Air Force) developed a bold operation. 12 SB bombers under the command of Colonel F.P. Polynin were to take part in it. The raid took place on February 23, 1938. The target was successfully hit, and all bombers returned to base.

Fragment of the monument to Soviet volunteer pilots in Wuhan

End of cooperation

The German attack on the Soviet Union and the deployment of allied military operations in the Pacific theater led to a deterioration in Soviet-Chinese relations, since the Chinese leadership did not believe in the victory of the USSR over Germany and, on the other hand, reoriented its policy towards rapprochement with the West. In 1942-1943, economic ties between both states weakened sharply.

In March 1942, the USSR was forced to begin recalling its military advisers due to anti-Soviet sentiment in the Chinese provinces.

In May 1943, the Soviet government was forced, after declaring a strong protest in connection with the excesses of the Xinjiang Kuomintang authorities, to close all trade organizations and recall its trade representatives and specialists.

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance from the United States and its allies

Since December 1937, a series of events (the attack on the American gunboat Penei, the Nanjing massacre, etc.) turned public opinion in the USA, France and Great Britain against Japan and aroused certain fears regarding Japanese expansion. This prompted the governments of these countries to begin providing the Kuomintang with loans for military needs. In addition, Australia did not allow one of the Japanese companies to purchase an iron ore mine on its territory, and in 1938 it banned the export of iron ore to Japan. Japan responded by invading Indochina in 1940, cutting off the Sino-Vietnamese Railway, through which China imported weapons, fuel, and 10,000 tons of materials from Western allies every month.

In mid-1941, the US government funded the creation of the American Volunteer Group, led by Claire Lee Chennault, to replace Soviet aircraft and volunteers who had left China. The successful combat operations of this group caused a wide public outcry against the backdrop of the difficult situation on other fronts, and the combat experience acquired by the pilots was used in all theaters of military operations. In 1943, on the basis of this group, the 14th US Air Force was created, which also fought in Chinese skies until the end of the war.

To put pressure on the Japanese army in China, the US, UK and the Netherlands established an embargo on oil and steel trade with Japan. The loss of oil imports made it impossible for Japan to continue the war in China. This pushed Japan to forcefully resolve the supply issue, which was marked by the attack of the Imperial Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance to Germany

In the pre-war period, Germany and China cooperated closely in the economic and military spheres. Germany helped China modernize its industry and army in exchange for supplies of Chinese raw materials. More than half of German exports of military equipment and materials during the German rearmament period in the 1930s went to China. The 30 new Chinese divisions that were planned to be equipped and trained with German help were never created due to Adolf Hitler's refusal to further support China. By 1938 these plans had not been realized. This decision was largely due to the reorientation of German policy towards concluding an alliance with Japan. German policy especially shifted towards cooperation with Japan after the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact.

Foreign aid to Japan

In 1937-1939, the United States sold Japan military materials and raw materials in the amount of $511 million.

The fighting in the Khalkhin Gol area coincided with negotiations between Japanese Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita and the British Ambassador in Tokyo Robert Craigie. In July 1939, an agreement was concluded between England and Japan, according to which Great Britain recognized the Japanese seizures in China (thus providing diplomatic support for aggression against the Mongolian People's Republic and its ally, the USSR). At the same time, the US government extended the previously canceled trade agreement with Japan for six months, and then completely restored it. As part of the agreement, Japan purchased trucks for the Kwantung Army, machine tools for aircraft factories for $3 million, strategic materials (until 10/16/1940 - steel and iron scrap, until 07/26/1941 - gasoline and petroleum products), etc. A new embargo was imposed only on July 26 1941.

Results

The main reason for Japan's defeat in World War II was the victories of the American and British armed forces at sea and in the air, and the defeat of the largest Japanese land army, the Kwantung Army, by Soviet troops in August-September 1945, which allowed the liberation of Chinese territory.

Despite their numerical superiority over the Japanese, the effectiveness and combat effectiveness of the Chinese troops was very low, largely due to the more backward weapons of the Chinese army, which suffered 8.4 times more casualties than the Japanese.

The actions of the armed forces of the Western Allies, as well as the armed forces of the USSR, saved China from complete defeat.

Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9, 1945. The Sino-Japanese War, and with it the Second World War in Asia, ended with the complete surrender of Japan to the Allies.

Territorial changes

According to the decisions of the Cairo Conference (1943), the territories of Manchuria and the Pescadores Islands were transferred to China. The Ryukyu Islands were recognized as Japanese territory.

Losses of the parties

Chinese sources cite a figure of 35 million - the total number of losses in killed and wounded (armed forces and civilians).

According to Rudolf Rummel, the total losses amounted to more than 19 million people, including more than 12 million civilians.

The situation in the Japanese-occupied territories

Terror tactics were used against the local population.

War crimes

Nanjing massacre of 1937.

Inhumane experiments on prisoners of war and civilians during the creation of bacteriological weapons (Unit 731).

Cruel treatment and execution of prisoners of war.

Japanese offensive and Chinese defense organization

On July 7, 1937, after the incident at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, Japan begins a full-scale war against China.

The CPC and the Kuomintang exchanged statements of determination to jointly fight aggression. Potentially, China had powerful military resources and a ground army with a total strength of 2 million people, but due to poor equipment with modern weapons, its combat effectiveness was extremely low. The outdated artillery had shells stuck for a maximum of two months, and only 20 aircraft and 75 tanks were in good condition.

Poor training of all levels of military personnel, the lack of trained reserves and a system for registering conscripts did not allow for a quick increase in the size of the army, despite China's huge population.

By going to war, Japan challenged the world powers by declaring its intention to create a “Co-Prosperity Sphere” in East Asia. But there was no one to take on the challenge. European countries were unable to resist Japanese aggression, and isolationist sentiments prevailed in the United States. Therefore, the West limited itself to expressing formal protest, providing China only with moral support.

The USSR provided real support by signing a non-aggression pact with China on August 21, 1937. Already in September of the same year, negotiations began in Moscow with the Chinese delegation on military supplies.

In October, first aid began to arrive in China: tanks, planes, artillery, and equipment. The supplies were made against three loans, totaling $250 million. Large groups of military specialists and advisers were sent to China, who were directly involved in the fighting of the Chinese army. In 1939, there were 3.5 thousand Soviet military personnel there, including pilots and artillerymen, many of them distinguished themselves in battles on the fronts of China.

The Japanese offensive initially developed rapidly: by the end of July, Beijing and Tianjin had fallen. On August 13, the Japanese landed in Shanghai, opening a front in Central China and beginning to advance up the river. Yangtze. In November 1937, Shanghai fell, and in December the capital Nanjing was stormed (during the assault, the Japanese committed mass atrocities, killing several hundred thousand civilians). The government moved first to Wuhan, then further to Chongqing, the capital of Sichuan province. Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters was located there throughout the war.

The Japanese clearly did not expect a long war, hoping to complete the entire campaign in three months. But even after the fall of Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek continued to resist. In May 1938, Japanese troops advancing from the north united at Xuzhou with troops advancing from the river basin. Yangtze. The Chinese armies were surrounded, losing almost all their artillery and armored units. After such severe defeats, the battles for Wuhan began in July 1938.

Soviet assistance was already beginning to be felt here: many advisers directly participated in the battles, pilots shot down Japanese planes, and according to the plans of the Soviet staff, Chinese troops successfully launched counterattacks. The fighting dragged on until October 1938. Japanese losses also increased in other directions, although by October 1938 they managed to take the main port of southern China - Guangzhou.

Nevertheless, the pace of Japanese advance in 1938 slowed down by 3-4 times. In November 1938, the Japanese launched an attack on Changsha, but in December the Chinese launched a counteroffensive and drove back the Japanese units. A partisan movement began in the rear of the Japanese troops, and “liberated areas” were created.

For example, in Northern China, Wu 5, part of the Japanese troops were busy guarding communications and fighting partisans. At the beginning of 1939, the Japanese decided to deliver a crushing blow to the partisan bases, but this was prevented by the upcoming offensive of the Chinese army - they had to withdraw troops and transfer them to the front. In the spring of 1939, stubborn fighting ensued. The Japanese army suffered heavy losses (they were equal to the Chinese, and in the guerrilla war the Japanese losses were 3 times greater).

By the summer of 1939, the Japanese offensive was suspended, and there was a lull on the fronts.

Changing Japan's Tactics Toward China

For Chiang Kai-shek, the results of the first two years of the war were depressing: all ports and the most important railway communications were lost, densely populated areas were abandoned. The government itself was forced to move to the West, to Chongqing. But the resistance continued.

After the incident at Khalkhin Gol in Mongolia, where Soviet troops defeated an invading group of Japanese troops, the USSR increased military assistance to China. When World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939, a delegation was sent from China to the United States to negotiate American assistance to China. In total, until 1941, the United States provided assistance to China in the amount of $120 million.

Meanwhile, the Japanese, having ceased active operations in China, began to strengthen their positions in the occupied areas. On March 30, 1940, in Nanjing, they created a puppet government headed by Wang Jingwei. He was tasked with creating an army of 800,000 to fight partisans and protect communications behind Japanese lines.

In the summer of the same 1940, the militant Japanese government decided to take control of French Indochina, taking advantage of France's surrender to Hitler. This was already fraught with a big war, and Japan began to mobilize resources in advance. On September 27, 1940, the famous tripartite pact was signed: Japan-Germany-Italy.

Negotiations between the Soviet leadership and Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka began. They led in April 1941 to the signing of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty. The meaning of this agreement was that the USSR should stop military assistance to the Chinese government.

However, Chiang Kai-shek's government quickly reoriented itself towards the United States. Contacts began back in January 1941, when the first American planes and pilots arrived in China. And on May 6, 1941, the US Congress extended the Lend-Lease Act to China.

Having signed an agreement on unity of action, both parties - the CCP and the Kuomintang - maintained a suspicious attitude towards each other, both counting on the weakening of the neighboring side during the war with Japan. Mao Zedong instructed the armed forces to avoid major clashes with the Japanese and to disarm, if necessary, scattered units of the retreating Kuomintang army. At the same time, the instruction was given: “Beat the landowners under the guise of traitors.” This meant redistributing land in areas that came under communist control; the population there reached several tens of millions.

In 1939, relations between the CPC and the Kuomintang became strained. Chiang Kai-shek gave instructions to stop supplying the 8th and 4th armies and rejected the Communist proposal to join the Kuomintang, making it a condition for their withdrawal from the Communist Party. In an interview with American journalist Edgar Snow in October 1939, Mao Zedong spoke of administrative independence for the Communists and threatened to “destroy the Kuomintang dictatorship.” It came to open military clashes and a blockade of the “Special Administrative Region” at the end of 1939.

It should be admitted that the communists practically did not conduct active operations during this period. The only combat episode was the so-called “Battle of a Hundred Regiments.” In August 1940, communist troops launched a series of attacks on Japanese communications. (This was the only active operation of the CCP during the entire war.) But by November of the same 1940, Japanese troops, having carried out a counteroffensive, restored the situation and intensified punitive operations against the “liberated areas.”

Relations between the Kuomintang and the CPC became clearly hostile. In January 1941, things came to an open conflict - it was associated with an obscure incident around the 4th Army. According to the communists, the Kuomintang struck an unexpected blow, disarmed the communist army, and took the officers led by Commander E. Ting prisoner. According to another version, the command of the 4th Army itself provoked the Kuomintang units by refusing to carry out Chiang Kai-shek’s order to relocate to the other side of the Yangtze. One way or another, the threat of renewed civil war once again loomed in China. But in fact it never stopped.

In the battles for the Celestial Empire. Russian trace in China Okorokov Alexander Vasilievich

JAPANESE-CHINESE WAR. 1937-1945

JAPANESE-CHINESE WAR.

In the summer of 1937, militaristic Japan attacked the Republic of China. Japanese troops occupied Beijing, Tianjin, Nankou and Kalgan. Having captured a bridgehead in Northern China, the Japanese command began preparing further operations. Military operations soon unfolded in Central China. The Japanese landing besieged the largest industrial center and port of the country - the city of Shanghai.

Having started the war, the Japanese ruling circles relied on a “lightning war.” At the same time, they counted on the weakness of the Chinese armed forces: by this time, Japanese troops were 4-5 times superior in firepower to their enemy's army, 13 times superior in aviation, 36 times superior in tanks (98).

In this situation, China again turned to the Soviet Union for help. According to the agreement reached, the USSR provided two loans of 50 million dollars in March - July 1938, and in June 1939 another loan of 150 million dollars for the purchase of military materials.

In order to most effectively operate military equipment and train soldiers and officers of the Chinese army, the Soviet government agreed to send military instructors to the country.

The first group of advisers, consisting of 27 people, arrived in China at the end of May - beginning of June 1938. At the same time, in May 1938, corps commander M.I. was appointed to the post of chief military adviser to the Chinese army. Dratvin (military communications adviser in the mid-1920s), who arrived in China at the end of November 1937 as a military attaché at the USSR Embassy and remained as such until August 1938. In subsequent years, the main advisers were A.I. . Cherepanov (August 1938 - August 1939), K.A. Kachalov (September 1939 - February 1941), V.I. Chuikov (February 1941 - February 1942), who worked in China back in 1927. The latter was also a Soviet military attaché. In 1938 - 1940 military attachés at the USSR Embassy in China were N.I. Ivanov and P.S. Rybalko (99) . By the first half of 1939, the Soviet advisory apparatus was practically formed. Its activities covered the central military authorities and the active army (main military areas). Virtually all types of troops were represented in the apparatus. At Headquarters and in the troops at different times (1937 - 1939), the following worked as military advisers: I.P. Alferov (5th military region), F.F. Alyabushev (9th military district), P.F. Batitsky, A.K. Berestov (2nd military district), N.A. Bobrov, A.N. Bogolyubov, A.V. Vasiliev (adviser for the North-West direction), M.M. Matveev (3rd military district), R.I. Panin (adviser of the South-Western direction), P.S. Rybalko, M.A. Shchukin (1st military district) and others. Senior aviation advisers were PIs. Thor, P.V. Rychagov, F.P. Police, P.N. Anisimov, T.T. Khryukin, A.G. Rytov; on tanks: P.D. Belov, N.K. Chesnokov; for artillery and air defense: I.B. Golubev, Russkikh, YaM. Tabunchenko, I A. Shilov; for engineering troops: A.Ya. Kalyagin, I.P. Baturov, A.P. Kovalev; for communications - Burkov, Geranov; in the military medical service - P.M. Zhuravlev; on operational issues - Chizhov, Ilyashov: on operational-tactical intelligence - I.G. Lenchik, S.P. Konstantinov, M.S. Shmelev (100) . And also military advisers: Y.S. Vorobyov, Colonel A.A. Vlasov and others.

By the end of 1939, the number of Soviet military advisers had increased significantly. As of October 20, 1939, 80 Soviet military specialists worked as advisers in the Chinese army: 27 in the infantry, 14 in the artillery, 8 in the engineering troops, 12 in the communications troops, 12 in the armored forces, 2 in the chemical defense troops, logistics and transport departments - 3, in medical institutions - 2 people (101).

In total, according to the data given in the memoirs of A.Ya. Kalyagin, in 1937 - 1942. over 300 Soviet military advisers worked in China (102), and from the autumn of 1937 to the beginning of 1942, when Soviet advisers and specialists mostly left China, more than 5,000 Soviet citizens worked and fought in the rear and at the fronts (103) .

Military supplies for warring China were delivered by sea. For this purpose, Chinese representatives chartered several English ships, on which weapons were sent to Hong Kong for transfer to the Chinese authorities. Subsequently, Haiphong and Rangoon were chosen as destination ports. From their berths, military equipment and weapons were delivered to China by road or rail.

The first two ships left the Sevastopol port in the second half of November 1937. These transports managed to deliver artillery weapons: 20 barrels of 76-mm anti-aircraft guns, 50 anti-tank guns of 45 mm caliber, 500 heavy machine guns, the same number of light machine guns, 207 boxes with control devices to anti-aircraft guns, 4 searchlight stations, 2 sound collectors. In addition - 40 spare liners, 100 charging boxes, 40 thousand rounds for 76 mm guns, 200 thousand shells for 45 mm guns, 13 670 thousand rifle cartridges. In addition, the following armored vehicles were shipped: 82 T-26 tanks, 30 T-26 engines, the same number of Komintern tractors, 10 ZIS-6 vehicles, 568 boxes of spare parts for T-26 tanks. Aviation weapons arrived on the same transports. The total weight of cargo received was 6182 tons (104).

In December 1937, the Chinese command summed up the results of six months of war. The need for weapons and military equipment turned out to be greater than previously expected. Moreover, in a number of unsuccessful battles the Chinese army was left virtually without artillery. Therefore, Chinese representatives turned to the Soviet government with a new request for the supply of military equipment to strengthen the ground forces. In this case, we were talking about fully equipping 20 infantry divisions with weapons.

At the beginning of 1938, the following weapons were sent for these purposes: 76 mm guns, 8 each. per division (that is, two batteries) - a total of 160 guns; 122 mm howitzers, 4 pcs. per division (that is, per battery) - only 80 guns; 37 mm guns (anti-tank) 4 pcs. (per battery) - 80 guns in total; heavy machine guns 15 pcs. per division - only 300 units; 30 light machine guns each. per division - only 600 units.

In addition, spare parts, tools, shells and cartridges were supplied. Subsequently, at the request of Chinese representatives, the number of artillery pieces was increased by 35 units. According to documents, in the spring of 1938, a total of 297 aircraft, 82 tanks, 425 artillery pieces, 1,825 machine guns, 400 vehicles, 360 thousand shells and 10 million rifle cartridges were delivered to the ground forces (105).

In mid-July 1938, during the unfolding defensive battle for Wuhan, the Soviet government, on account of the second loan (under the agreement dated July 1, 1938), additionally sent to China: 100 37-mm anti-tank guns, 2 thousand machine guns (light and easel), 300 trucks, as well as the required number of spare parts, ammunition, etc. Subsequently, the number of artillery sent increased by 200 barrels.

In the second half of 1939, 250 artillery pieces, 4,400 machine guns, 500 vehicles, more than 500 thousand shells, 50 thousand rifles, 100 million. cartridges and other military equipment. All this equipment and weapons were delivered to China on the Beaconsfield steamer. 500 vehicles were delivered under their own power through the province of Xinjiang (106).

Looking ahead, we note that supplies of artillery and small arms to equip Chinese divisions continued in 1940. The Soviet Union sent to China an additional 35 trucks and tractors, 250 cannons, 1,300 machine guns, as well as a large number of bombs, shells, cartridges and other property.

Here it is necessary to say a few words about the Chinese Air Force. By the beginning of the war, the Chinese Air Force's aircraft fleet consisted of several hundred outdated combat vehicles, purchased mainly from the USA, Great Britain and Italy. In the very first air battles, Chinese aviation lost 1/3 of its aircraft. By the end of 1937, the moment of the decisive battles for Nanjing, the capital of Kuomintang China, out of about 500 aircraft in Chinese aviation (according to other sources - 450), consolidated into 26 combat squadrons, only 20 remained in service. (107)

In September 1937, the Soviet government adopted a resolution to supply China with a loan of 225 aircraft: 62 SB bombers, 62 I-15 fighters, 93 I-16 fighters, 8 UTI-4 trainer fighters. A little later, at the request of the Chinese side, 6 TB-3 heavy bombers were sent to the country.

On September 14, 1937, representatives of the Chinese delegation addressed the Soviet government with a request to select and send Soviet volunteer pilots to China.

The delivery of aircraft directly to China began in mid-October, and by December 1, 86 aircraft of various types were delivered to Chinese representatives at the base in Lanzhou. By March 1938, 182 aircraft had already been sent to China from the USSR and a loan totaling $250 million had been provided (108).

The issue of sending Soviet volunteers was resolved just as quickly. During the second half of September and the first ten days of October, careful selection and intensive training of volunteer pilots was carried out.

This is how event participant A.K. describes the procedure for “recruiting” volunteers. Korchagin:

“On that day off (autumn 1937 - A.O.) A messenger arrived to me with an invitation on behalf of the brigade commander to the House of the Red Army. From a distance I saw military men crowding around the porch: smoking, talking, waiting for something. Soon we were invited to a large hall, where the brigade commander, Major G.I., was already present. Thor. No statutory commands, no reports, no reports. Thor greeted everyone who came and suggested that they sit closer to the stage. Quite a lot of people gathered. There were representatives of different squadrons, detachments and units.

The list of guests was read out. There were no absentees. They explained that we were invited to select from among those willing a group of pilots, navigators and other military specialists to carry out an important and difficult task associated with a known risk. The matter is voluntary. Everyone has the right to refuse for any reasons and circumstances - family, personal, health reasons, etc. You can do without explaining the reasons. Those who are unable to take part in the proposed business trip may be free.

A short break was announced, after which a small part of those invited to the hall did not return. A kind of conversation began with those who remained. Thor was interested in everyone: how they worked, what their relationships were with their comrades, their marital status. Are there any reasons that prevent you from completing a difficult task or being away from your family for a long time? Some of the respondents were also released, despite their clearly expressed readiness and strong desire to participate in any task, despite assurances that the trust would be justified. When the selection was over, Thor made the task somewhat more specific: “We have a long business trip ahead, it starts today. We can assume that it has already begun. It will last several months. We will be in very remote areas. There may be no normal communication with family. They need to be notified of this immediately and warned that their letters may remain unanswered.

We must go to the plant in Irkutsk today, receive new aircraft there, fly them around and transport them to one of the airfields several hundred kilometers away. This is the first stage of the task. Having flown to the indicated airfield, we will receive the following task. And this will continue until the task is completed. The final purpose of the trip remained unknown."

In October 1937, the Alma-Ata - Lanzhou - Hankou "air bridge" and the Irkutsk - Suzhou - Lanzhou "bridge" began to operate. The first two squadrons of SB bombers and I-16 fighters were transported along it to China. The selection and formation of a group of Soviet volunteer pilots was directly supervised by the head of the Red Army Air Force A.D. Loktionov and his deputy brigade commander Ya.V. Smushkevich.

The personnel of the first bomber squadron (commander - Captain N.M. Kidalinsky) numbered 153 people. The fighter squadron consisted of 101 people. On October 21, 1937, 447 people were concentrated for further travel to China. These included pilots, aircraft technicians, aircraft mechanics, airfield managers, meteorologists, code talkers, radio operators, mechanics, drivers, engineers and aircraft assembly crew workers.

Following the first group, a second group of 24 people was sent to China, and on November 1, 1937, a third group of SB bombers under the command of Captain F.P. Polynina. It consisted of 21 pilots and 15 navigators (109). In Hankow, Polynin was joined by a group of SB bombers that arrived from Irkutsk. Colonel G.I. recruited the Transbaikal group and organized its flight to China. Thor, who had recently returned from Spain.

A.K. subsequently spoke about the difficulty of this group’s flight. Korchagin:

“Soon the order was announced. We should have crossed the Mongolian-Chinese border and landed in Suzhou. The route ran through the ridge and the Gobi Desert….

The next stage was a flight along the route Suzhou - Lanzhou. Here, Chinese identification marks were applied to our security forces. It became known that the Chinese government invited us to take part in hostilities. G.I. Thor personally talked with everyone on this issue. He said that this is a purely voluntary matter.

After organizing a battle group of 15 crews, G.I. Thor was recalled to Transbaikalia to form a new detachment of volunteers. V.I. took command of our group. Klevtsov and led her through Xian to Hankou. There she became part of the F.P. bomber group. Polynina.

The flight on the route Xi'an - Hankou turned out to be the most dramatic. On the day appointed for departure, the city was bathed in sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky. Visibility is excellent. But the departure was not allowed due to difficult weather conditions on the route, although we almost didn’t believe it. We stayed in Xi'an for a day.

The next day everything happened again. We had to sit and wait for the weather for two more days. Four days passed like this.

In the second half of the fifth day, departure was allowed - the weather on the route had improved. They took off into a completely cloudless sky. We've walked most of the way. Nothing alarming was expected. True, the only intermediate airfield was not accepted - a cross was laid out on it. We rushed to Hankou, leaving this airfield a little aside.

The four walked in formation. The crew of the first aircraft included First Lieutenant SM. Denisov (commander), senior lieutenant G.P. Yakushev (navigator), gunner-radio operator N.M. Basov. I was fourth.

The other two aircraft were piloted by Lieutenant A.M. Vyaznikov and chief pilot V.F. Streltsov. There were four people flying on each plane, one of them was 1st Rank Military Technician Group Engineer P.M. Taldykin.

There was a smaller part of the route remaining, but no one expected that it would be so difficult. At first, faint wisps of clouds flashed under the planes. But they didn’t feel like a threat yet. They seemed completely safe. The ground was clearly visible. Then the cloudiness increased, visibility deteriorated, but through frequent large breaks in the clouds the ground was clearly visible and the orientation was not disturbed. Soon the clouds thickened, hiding the ground.

We were flying above the clouds. The sun shone brightly. But cloud flakes had already appeared above us. And then their top layer blocked the sun from us. Now we were flying between two layers of clouds. The planes were still flying in formation, without losing sight of each other. But a critical moment came when it became impossible to continue the flight in the accepted direction. The commander decided to return to the intermediate airfield and land, despite the ban. There was no longer enough fuel to return to Xi'an.

As we approached the airfield, we noticed how the starting team was laying out a second cross; which meant the complete impossibility of landing. Again we flew to Hankou. The clouds thickened, and soon we were surrounded by such “milk” that we could not see the plane of our own plane, not to mention the neighboring cars. The danger of planes colliding with each other or with any peak of a mountain range standing in our way has increased. It was decided to break through the clouds downwards.

Our crew succeeded. But, emerging from the clouds, the plane found itself in a huge stone bowl. On all sides there were jagged rocks covered with some kind of vegetation. The edges and bottom of the bowl were clearly visible, despite the twilight. There were no other planes.

Having flown around the bowl, the commander decided to break through the cloud upward. Seeing nothing ahead of him, he flew the plane into the cloud with a large climb. It seemed that the plane's collision with the rock was inevitable. But everything worked out. The clouds have broken. Above us is the sun, below us is a wavy white sea of ​​clouds, reliably hiding the earth. We peer forward, backward, right, left in the hope of meeting our planes, but they are not there. What about the planes? Perhaps they went further along the route, or perhaps... I didn’t want to think bad.

We continue our flight. Now we need to break through the clouds down. And this was possible, apparently, because the mountain range was already left behind. It seemed that the danger had passed. But low clouds began to press the car almost to the ground. Rain is coming. It was approaching evening. It was getting dark. Gasoline was running low.

Finally, a big city. Flags are painted on the roofs of some buildings, indicating that the houses belong to one or another foreign embassy. There were pipes on all sides. At dusk, beautiful, wide asphalt streets are clearly visible. Here is the airfield. On it is one plane of our four. It rains continuously. We get off the plane. Stepan Denisov takes off his helmet, revealing his gray head, and I note to myself that before he seemed to have no gray hair at all.

A car approached the plane. We were taken to the hotel, where in one of the halls we appeared before P.F. Zhigarev - chief aviation adviser to the Chinese army.

Denisov had not yet had time to report when Zhigarev asked sternly:

Where are the planes piloted by Vyaznikov and Streltsov?

There seemed to be no end to Zhigarev’s questions. But at that time a man unknown to us entered the hall and said:

Two planes were reported from the area to land.” In the spring of 1938, a new batch of Soviet bomber pilots on the SB, led by Captain T.T., arrived in China in two groups (March 31 and May 12). Khryukin in the amount of 121 people (31 pilots, 28 navigators, 25 gunners-radio operators, 37 aviation technicians).

In July 1938, personnel from another squadron of high-speed bombers in the amount of 66 people, headed by Colonel G.I., were sent to China. Thor.

And finally, in the summer of 1939, a group of DB-3 long-range bombers arrived in China under the command of G.A. Kulishenko (110) .

In total, according to V.N. Vartanov, by June 1939, 8 groups of bomber aviation pilots were sent to China, with a total number of 640 people (111).

At the same time, fighter aviation groups arrived in China. So in November, December 1937 and January 1938, a squadron of I-15 fighters under the command of Captain A.S. was sent to the country in three groups. Blagoveshchensky (99 people, including 39 pilots) (112). By mid-February 1939, 712 volunteers - pilots and aircraft technicians - arrived in China (for different periods). Among them: F.I. Dobyt, I.N. Kozlov, V. Kurdyumov, M.G. Machin, G.N. Prokofiev, K.K. Kokkinaki, G.P. Kravchenko, G.N. Zakharov and others.

The aircraft technicians of the Trans-Baikal (Irkutsk) group were headed by the engineer of the air detachment, military technician of the 1st rank P.M. Taldykin. Technicians I.S. worked under his leadership. Kytmanov, V.R. Afanasyev, A.G. Kurin, M.F. Aksenov, Ya.V. Khvostikov, S.S. Voronin, A.G. Puganov, G.K. Zakharkov, F.I. Alabugin, E.I. Gulin, A.G. Mushtakov, T.S. Lukhter, A.E. Khoroshevsky, A.K. Korchagin, D.M. Chumak, V.I. Paramonov.

Soviet fighter squadrons were stationed in two of the three aviation districts and in the Eastern and Southern aviation regions, into which the Chinese Air Force was divided. The 4th Fighter Squadron was stationed in the 1st Aviation District, whose headquarters were located in Chongqing. In the 2nd Air District, due to its location too close to the front line, aviation was not based. The 3rd District, headquartered in Chengdu, housed the 5th Fighter Squadron.

The main base of the Trans-Baikal group of SB bombers was the Hankou airfield, which was a circle with a diameter of 1000 m, with a concrete strip 1000 x 60 m. The rest of the field was unpaved. According to participants in the events, when it rained, the ground became soggy, the wheels of the planes sank up to their hubs in the snow, and then they were placed along the runway. They formed a kind of long corridor. It was from this corridor that planes took off and landed there. Maintenance of combat vehicles in such conditions was difficult and dangerous.

The situation with the provision of combat missions was no better. This is how he describes this situation. A.K. Korchagin:

“We didn’t have gas stations, auto starters, tractor-trailers, cars, etc. For example, fuel was delivered in 20-liter cans. They were packed in wooden boxes and most often transported on pack animals. Refueling was done manually by two people. One, standing on the ground, tied a rope to a jar and punched holes in its lid with a large pin. The second was located on the plane of the aircraft near the filler neck. He used a rope to pull the can onto a plane, pour the fuel into the tank and throw the rope onto the ground for the next can. It took a long time to refuel. After refueling, there were a lot of cans left near the plane. In addition, at every step there are unforeseen “hiccups”. The fitting from the cylinder did not fit the aircraft system: either it had a left-hand thread instead of a right-hand one, or the diameter did not match. To get out of the situation, they made various kinds of adapters on their own.

Most of the vehicles that arrived in China were handed over to Chinese pilots. They flew a lot and carefreely, often without observing the rules of technical operation, without routine maintenance, without inspection and repair. There was no one to service them - there were not enough technicians. And when the pilot realized that the machine was faulty and began to knock and rattle, he flew to Hankou. Sometimes they flew in whole groups, and we always provided them with qualified assistance. The Chinese pilots thanked us and flew away again for some time in the repaired aircraft. All this placed an additional burden on our shoulders. But there was no need to take into account time and difficulties. Due to the lack of any workshops and necessary equipment, all repair work was carried out on our own. Under the leadership of engineer Sakharov, who arrived with the group F.P. Polynin, and with the participation of P.M. Taldykin even organized a refurbishment of engines, which, in accordance with strict instructions and regulations of that time, was allowed only in stationary factory conditions. It must be said that even the most subtle adjustment work was carried out in the workshops organized by Sakharov. The repaired engines were reliable, and pilots were not afraid to fly them.

The technology did not let us down. Its quality is evidenced by the fact of extended service life. It was set at 100 hours. Once they were completed, the technician reported this to the crew commander and the group engineer. But according to all data, the plane was still quite suitable for flight. And then the decision was made: to continue operating the aircraft. The pilots also did not want to remain “horseless.” They knew that under normal conditions such planes were not allowed to fly. But the conditions were not ordinary - there was a war going on. And here some deviation from the letter of the law was made. The service life was increased to 120 hours, and on some aircraft even more. Everything went well. Apparently, the experience gained was useful, and by the time we returned to our homeland, the increased resource was legalized. All this testified to the high reliability of our equipment, and to the fact that first-class combat vehicles were being sent to China.”

Soviet volunteer pilots received their first baptism of fire on November 21, 1937 near Nanjing - seven Soviet fighters against twenty Japanese aircraft. As a result, two Japanese bombers and an I-96 fighter were shot down. (113)

The day after the air battle near Nanjing, the Shanghai correspondent of the Japanese agency Tsushin reported to Tokyo: “It has been definitely established that 10 bombers and 40 fighters with 11 pilots arrived in China from the USSR. Soviet pilots, having joined the Chinese air force, played a well-known role in yesterday's battle over Nanjing. They showed great skill. Airplanes purchased in the Soviet Union have high flight performance. Their speed reaches 450 miles per hour. Imported Soviet aircraft greatly strengthened Nanjing's defenses" (114).

On December 2, nine SB bombers under the command of Captain I.N. Kozlov from the Nanjing airfield raided Shanghai, where they bombed a concentration of Japanese ships in the Shanghai roadstead. Precision bombing destroyed the cruiser and damaged six other warships (115).

On the same day, fighter pilots in the Nanjing area shot down six Japanese bombers, and four on December 3. Until December 12, 1937, the fighter group conducted seven missions. Bombers daily attacked ships on the Yangtze River and the battle formations of the advancing enemy troops.

Russian volunteer pilots took part in battles over Taipei (02/24/1938), Guangzhou (04/13/1938), and Aobei (06/16/1938), where six enemy aircraft were destroyed. On May 31, 1938, in an air battle over Wuhan, fighter pilot A.A. Gubenko, having used up his cartridges - the second in the history of aviation and the first of the Soviet pilots - rammed an enemy plane, for which he was awarded the Golden Order of the Republic of China.

After a series of major defeats in air battles, the Japanese Air Force decided to take revenge. The “striking blow” - a powerful bombardment of Hankou - was timed to coincide with the birthday of the “divine Mikado”.

However, Chinese intelligence became aware of the impending raid already in the second half of April. The command of Soviet volunteer pilots led by P.V. Rychagov carried out thorough preparations in advance for the impending air battle and developed a plan for maneuvering fighters from Nanchang airfields to Wuhan airfields. According to P.V.’s plan Rychagov, the concentration of aviation to repel the raid of Japanese bombers should have been carried out secretly, shortly before the raid itself.

On April 29, 1938, over 30 Japanese bombers, under the cover of a large group of fighters, flew to a combat course. The Japanese were counting on surprise and, accordingly, an easy victory. But their hopes were not justified. The sudden attack by Soviet pilots came as a complete surprise to the samurai. In the short-lived battle, the Japanese lost 21 aircraft and were forced to turn back.

An eyewitness to the events, Go Mo-jo, later described this battle as follows: “White clouds floated high in the blue sky, flowers bloomed from the explosions of anti-aircraft shells. The crackle of anti-aircraft guns, the roar of planes, bomb explosions, the incessant chatter of machine guns - everything merged into an endless roar. The wings of the cars sparkled dazzlingly in the sun, now flying up, now rapidly falling down, now rushing to the left, now to the right. The British have a special term for defining a hot air battle - “dog fighting”, which means “dog fight”. No, I would call this fight “eagle fighting” - “eagle fight”. Some planes, suddenly engulfed in flames, crashed into the ground, others exploded in the air. The sky became the canvas of a living picture “The Cry of Devils and the Roar of Gods.” Thirty tense minutes and everything went quiet again. Very hot fight! Brilliant results: 21 enemy planes were shot down, 5 of ours” (116).

According to incomplete data, by May 1, 1938, Chinese aircraft shot down and destroyed 625 Japanese aircraft at airfields, sank 4 and damaged 21 Japanese warships.

Between July 8, 1937 and May 1, 1938, the Japanese Air Force suffered the following losses: 386 people were wounded, 700 were killed, 20 were captured, and 100 were missing. A total of 1,206 people (117) were out of action.

In total, according to the calculations of the Chinese government (1940), during 40 months of the war, with the direct participation of Russian volunteers, 986 Japanese aircraft (118) were shot down in the air and destroyed on the ground.

However, Soviet volunteer pilots also suffered significant losses. In just six months of fighting, from December 1937 to mid-May 1938, 24 fighter pilots were killed and 9 people were wounded in air battles and plane crashes. 39 Soviet aircraft were shot down, and five aircraft were lost in air crashes. According to the official report of fighter squadron personnel located along the Z line, as of January 21, 1939, 63 flight and support personnel were killed in China (119). The total number of dead Soviet volunteers was 227 people (120). Among them: commander of the fighter squad A. Rakhmanov, commander of the bomber squad Major G.A. Kulishenko (1903 - 08/14/1939), B.C. Kozlov (1912 - 02/15/1938), V.V. Pesotsky (1907 - 02/15/1938), V.I. Paramonov (1911 - 02/15/1938), M.I. Kizilshtein (1913 - 02/15/1938), M.D. Shishlov (1903 - 02/08/1938), D.P. Matveev (1907 - 07/11/1938), I.I. Stukalov (1905 - 07/16/1938), D.F. Kuleshin (1914 - 08/21/1938), M.N. Marchenko (1914 - 07/09/1938), V.T. Dolgov (1907 - 07/18/1938), L.I. Skornyakov (1909 - 08/17/1938), F.D. Gulien (1909 - 08/12/1938), K.K. Churikov (1907 - 08/12/1938), N.M. Terekhov (1907 - 08/12/1938), I.N. Gurov (1914 - 08/03/1938) and others.

Fourteen Soviet volunteer pilots were awarded the knowledge of Heroes of the Soviet Union for special distinctions in battles: F.P. Polynin, V.V. Zverev, A.S. Blagoveshchensky, O.N. Borovikov, A.A. Gubenko, S.S. Gaidarenko, T.T. Khryukin, G.P. Kravchenko, S.V. Slyusarev, S.P. Suprun, M.N. Marchenkov (posthumously), E.N. Nikolaenko, I.P. Selivanov, I.S. Sukhov.

Note that during the period under review (before the arrival of Soviet pilots) there was a small group of foreign volunteers in China, mainly Americans, British and French. Of these, the 14th Bomber Squadron was formed, consisting of 12 pilots led by the American Vincent Schmidt. However, according to a participant in the events, Soviet pilot Ya.P. Prokofiev, foreigners preferred not to take to the air, but to be based at rear airfields and “do business.” On March 1, 1938, shortly after the raid on Taiwan, the “international” squadron, which never flew a single combat mission, was disbanded (121).

Providing military assistance to China further aggravated Soviet-Japanese relations and partly provoked armed border clashes between Japanese and Soviet units. The largest of these were the battles in July - August 1938 near Lake Khasan. As a result of two weeks of fighting, Soviet troops lost 960 people killed, died from wounds, missing in action and 3,279 people wounded, shell-shocked, burned and sick. Of those killed, 38.1% were junior and middle command personnel (122). But even after Khasan, Japanese troops continued their armed “probing” of the Soviet border. Thus, only during May 1939, the Japanese repeatedly landed troops on the Soviet islands No. 1021 on the river. Amur, No. 121 and No. 124 on the Ussuri River, which committed armed attacks on border guards (123).

The natural result of tense relations between Moscow and Tokyo was another major armed conflict between Soviet-Mongolian and Japanese-Manchurian troops in the Khalkhin Gol River area. It arose in May 1939 and eventually resulted in a four-month “small war”.

As a result of tensions between the USSR and Japan, the territory of Manchuria continued to remain a springboard for the formation of Russian troops. The first Russian military detachments began to be created as separate combat units in the early 1930s. during the years of Japanese occupation of Manchuria. They were formed on the basis of auxiliary security detachments and volunteer squads of Russian emigrants. These military units were actively used to fight Chinese partisans, protect various facilities and military-strategic communications, and also, after appropriate training, for reconnaissance and sabotage activities. So, for example, back in the summer of 1932, General Kosmin, in agreement with the head of the Japanese military mission in Harbin, Komanubara, created 2 formations of several hundred people each for security service on the Mueden-Shanghai-Guan and the Lafa-Girin railways under construction. Both formations, which, according to the Japanese command, were to become the core of the White Army of Manchukuo, were included in the Kwantung Army.

Similar detachments from among Russian emigrants were created in other departments of Manchuria, for example, under the railway, mountain and forest police, detachments for the protection of concessions and various objects. Since 1937, the 3rd Department of the Bureau for Russian Emigrants in Manchuria (BREM) was responsible for recruiting their personnel. Recruitment into the units was carried out on a voluntary basis, mainly through advertisements in newspapers. The number of detachments ranged from 20 to 40 people. They operated at the Mulinsky mines (headed by former colonel of Kolchak’s army Belyanushkin, platoon commander - V. Eflakov), at the Kondo concession facilities located in Mulin, at the station. Yablonya, Handaohetzi and Shitouhezi (chief - N.P. Bekarevich), etc. It should be noted that many employees of security and police detachments were eventually sent to training courses for reconnaissance and sabotage activities. In this regard, it is interesting to cite information from the interrogation protocol of V.K. Dubrovsky dated August 29, 1945 about completing training in forest police courses.

“...In August 1943, on the orders of the Japanese military mission at the Mulinsky mines, together with the guard Eflakov (he died in May 1945), I was sent to the station. Handaohezi attended forest police courses administered by the Japanese military mission. However, in reality these were not mountain police courses, but courses for intelligence officers and saboteurs who were preparing to be sent to the territory of the USSR in order to carry out subversive work there. Accordingly, we took the following subjects at school.

1. Subversive business.

2. Military training.

3. Methods of sabotage work.

4. Characteristics and organization of the Red Army.

5. Study of the life of the Soviet Union.

6. Methods of crossing the state border.

The school lasted 6 months. The teachers were: subversive work was taught by Lieutenant Pleshko; the study of life in the Soviet Union, the characteristics and organization of the Red Army, methods of crossing the state border were taught by Captain Ivanov and Lieutenant Pleshko; Military training and methods of sabotage work were taught by second lieutenant Grigory Shimko.

There were 42 - 43 cadets studying at the school.

The school consisted of two platoons and a signal squad; the commander of the first platoon is Pleshko, the commander of the second platoon is Shimko.

The communications department trained radio reconnaissance agents to send them to the Soviet rear with a walkie-talkie. This department was commanded by senior non-commissioned officer Pligin. The school was located near the station at the station. Handaohezi. The school has existed since 1941; upon entering the school, all of us, cadets, gave a verbal commitment to keep the fact itself and everything related to our training in the courses in the strictest confidence.

In addition, we made an oral promise to faithfully serve the Japanese authorities and fight communism for its destruction and the establishment of a monarchy in Russia. We made an oral promise; they did not take away our written subscription.

...I graduated from these courses in December 1943. Just then the courses were disbanded and a Russian military detachment of the Manchukuo army was created on their basis. I was left to serve in this detachment as a corporal" (124).

By the early 1940s. Similar training courses for reconnaissance and sabotage activities were created at virtually all territorial Japanese military missions and their branches. Thus, according to a certificate compiled by the MTB Directorate of the Primorsky Military District at the Mudanjing Military Mission, from 1944 to 1945 training was carried out in the following detachments:

A detachment of mountain and forest police, stationed 22 km from the station. Handaohezi, under the command of Lieutenant Ilyinsky;

A police detachment stationed in the village of Erdaohezi, under the command of Captain Trofimov;

A police detachment at the mines in the city of Mulino, formed at the end of 1944 under the command of Warrant Officer Pavlov;

A detachment created from reservists at the end of 1944, stationed at the station. Lishuzhen, under the command of Lieutenant Lozhenkov;

A detachment created from reservists at the end of 1944, stationed at the station. Handaohezi under the command of Lieutenant Lukash.

The number of these detachments was approximately 40 people (125).

Since the late 1930s. The Japanese began to create Russian military detachments, intended directly to carry out combat and reconnaissance and sabotage missions in the event of a war with the USSR. In this regard, at the end of 1936, according to a plan developed by Colonel Kawabe Torashiro from the headquarters of the Kwantung Army, it was decided to unite scattered emigrant detachments, including groups of forest and mountain police, security detachments that had undergone special training, into a single Russian military Part.

The new formation, formed by the beginning of 1938 at the Sungari-11 station, was called the “Russian Detachment Asano” or the “Asano” Brigade - after the name of the Japanese adviser, Colonel Asano Takashi. He was actually the commander of the detachment, and his assistant was Major G.Kh. Naked.

Until September 1939, the Asano detachment was called an infantry detachment, then it was renamed a cavalry detachment, for which it received the definition of “fast-moving infantry.” Initially, the brigade's personnel numbered 150 - 200 people, which soon increased to seven hundred, which were divided into 5 companies. The detachment was organized like a military unit, but its personnel underwent special training at a school at the Japanese Military Mission in Harbin, opened in May 1938. Particular attention was paid to partisan actions. Lectures on this topic were given by the head of the Russian Fascist Union K.V. Rodzaevsky and officials of the Harbin Military Mission. Initially, the duration of schooling was three years, and then it was reduced to one and a half years. In the early years, volunteers were recruited into the school, and later recruitment was carried out in order to mobilize people among Russian emigrants aged 18 to 36 years (mainly from police ranks). Cadets who successfully completed training were awarded the rank of non-commissioned officers.

During classes with cadets, special attention was paid to drill and tactical training, which was carried out according to the regulations of the Japanese army. Great importance was paid to the study of the regulations of the Red Army. Separate groups of cadets were preparing to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage missions.

Asanovites were on full military pay according to the standards of the Japanese army, and during the training period they enjoyed one short-term leave. In material terms, the cadets of the detachment even enjoyed some privileges compared to the military personnel of the Japanese army: their families received the full salary of the person called up to his previous place of service.

With the outbreak of the war, the personnel training program was restructured. Most of the classes were devoted to propaganda work and the study of subversive work. Detailed information about the training of the unit’s personnel can be gleaned from the report of Ch., compiled on June 11, 1945 in the 1st department of the 4th department of the NKGB Directorate of the USSR. Initially, the author of the report served in the communications team of the Oomura company, and then, after its disbandment on April 3, 1942, in the Katahira company, which was based at the 28th border post (Albazin River).

“Since August (1942 - A.O.) Classes on tactics and drill training began (the Soviet system was studied). Classes on Russian history were held once a week. This subject was taught by cornet Shekherov. In addition, they studied the Amur Railway, the location of posts and outposts on Soviet territory, the Soviet border security system, and gave lectures on how to conduct propaganda on Soviet territory. Night classes were held twice a week. They were trained in partisan actions in relation to Soviet territory, acts of sabotage (blowing up bridges, warehouses, raids on outposts, propaganda). Lectures were also held on first aid, crossing the river on boats and rubber cushions (in particular, methods for destroying boats and cushions after crossing the border were indicated). Shooting exercises were held every month.

The exercises were conducted as follows. The company commander set the following tasks: to raid the N-outpost, destroy the telephone exchange, set fire to telegraph poles and blow up the railway bridge. Before performing these tasks, the company commander indicated the assembly point. The point was always assigned to a hill, its slope or under a hill. Conventional signals were established: one whistle meant “attention,” two whistles meant “split into groups and go to the assembly point.”

The Albazin River was conditionally replaced by the river. Amur. One coast was considered Soviet, and the other - Manchurian. Patrols were assigned - on horseback and on foot, and in winter - on skis. Reconnaissance was sent ahead, the task of which was to establish when the patrol would leave to check its section of the border, at which moment the “partisans” should cross the border. In winter, white camouflage robes were issued for crossing or carrying out a raid. In addition, they made transitions (marches). Moreover, one of the crossings was made together with Japanese recruits standing on the very border. During the campaign we were dressed in Soviet uniforms" (126). It is known that one of the groups of cadets who were trained under the new program, consisting of 400 people, was secretly transferred to the area of ​​the village. Kumaer to take part in reconnaissance and combat operations against the Red Army. Several three-inch guns, Shosha system machine guns, rifles and 100 thousand cartridges (127) were also taken there. However, the situation that unfolded on the Soviet-German front forced the Japanese command to abandon their plans.

Since 1940, new “Russian military detachments” began to be created based on the type of the Asano detachment, which were its branches. They received names according to the place of their formation and deployment: on Sungari-2 (Sungari Russian military detachment), in the city of Hailar, at the station. Handaohezi (Handaohezi Russian military detachment). The latter was created by the Harbin Military Mission in 1940 on the basis of the Asaeko company of the Asano detachment. In January 1944, it was merged with the mountain forest police training team, under the command of Manchukuo Army Major A.N. Gukaeva (128) . Each detachment was an independent combat unit, had its own detachment holiday (for example, Sungari - May 6, Handaohezi - May 22) and a detachment banner. The detachment banner of the Sungari Russian detachment was a white cloth decorated with the image of St. George the Victorious (129).

Information about the intensification of the activities of Russian military detachments in 1941 - 1942. is given in various reports, reports and certificates of the heads of the NKVD and border troops of the Trans-Baikal District. Thus, the report of the acting head of the NKVD of the Trans-Baikal District, Lieutenant Colonel Paremsky, dated January 16, 1943, reports on the creation of new “white emigrant and paramilitary fascist detachments” and putting on combat readiness (130). The report of the head of the border troops of the Trans-Baikal District, Major General Apolonov, dated July 26, 1941, mentions the distribution of weapons to Russian police detachments (131), and the report dated July 29, 1941 - that “... mobilization of Russian white emigrants is being carried out in the Mudanjiang region ; 800 mobilized are concentrated at the station. Handa-Oheza..." (132), and in a report dated July 31, 1941 - about the meeting that took place on July 18 - 20, 1941 in Hailar, at which "15 influential White Guards" were appointed "chiefs of White Guard detachments intended to fight against USSR" (133).

In the formed detachments, strict military discipline and service were introduced according to the regulations of two armies: the Japanese and the Red Army. The detachments were led by officials of the Manchurian army from among the Japanese and Russian emigrants. Each commander had Japanese advisers - representatives of the Japanese military mission. Recruitment into the units was carried out on the basis of mobilization, in accordance with the law on universal conscription for Russian emigration (as one of the indigenous peoples of Manchuria), mainly from the eastern regions of Manchukuo - from Mudanjiang, Jiamusi, Mulin, as well as from Old Believer villages. A smaller part was called up from Harbin and the Western Line and replenished mainly the Sungari military detachment. The Hailar detachment was composed mainly of Cossacks from Three Rivers.

Detailed information about the structure, weapons, uniforms and allowances of the Handaohezi Russian Military Detachment (HRVO), formed in January 1944 (according to some sources in 1943), is given in the certificate of the 1st Directorate of the NKGB of the USSR dated June 6, 1945.